


Two Musicians and a Ghost Hunter Walk Into A Bar

by DarlingCera



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, Ghost Hunting, M/M, Multi, Musicians, NaNoWriMo, Nanowrimo2017, Paranormal, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Rockstars, Romance, Threesome - M/M/M, bandfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-01-28 13:24:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12607612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarlingCera/pseuds/DarlingCera
Summary: Casey Matthews is a ghost hunter. Not by choice. The paranormal is the family business. Ezra Young and Tyler Burell are best friends, though Tyler has wanted more for years. Ezra gets overwhelmed easily. He feels things, he hears them too. His gift could be a great asset, but it is untrained and leaves him vulnerable.  When the three of them meet on a paranormal investigation, they almost instantly bond. But will their friendship turn into something more, or will one of them have to choose?





	1. Chapter 1

Dusk faded away into nightfall over the horizon of the Matanzas Inlet. The water went from blue to black, the lighthouse turned on and the lights in all of the bayfront shops and restaurants turned on. It was Halloween night, the streets were alive with people of all ages in costumes. This city wouldn’t quiet down until the wee hours of the morning. St.Augustine, Florida, with it’s storied past and abundance of ghost stories, loves Halloween.

Ezra Young stood in front of his bathroom mirror in a duplex on Oviedo Street. He had been invited to several parties, but that wouldn’t start until later in the evening. Ezra had made plans with his best friend, Tyler Burrell for the beginning of the night. Tyler went home to Ontario on the fifth of November and he had told Ezra that he wanted to see as much of the cheesy tourist stuff as they could possibly squeeze into his visit. 

Ezra heard footsteps in the hall and turned his head as Tyler stood with a hand on either side of the doorway. 

“Yeah.” He turned away from the mirror and smiled at Tyler. “I’ve never done one of these tours before. I’m pretty stoked.” Ezra gently moved past Tyler in the doorway “We can walk there.” Ezra put a hoodie on and stuffed his wallet in his back pocket. Tyler followed Ezra out the door and shut it behind them. They started walking down the street, taking a few minutes to walk past the Flagler College campus that had been packed all day with Halloween activities. 

“You’re not cold?” Ezra asked, stuffing his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie. 

“Not really. You?” Tyler had gone out in just a t shirt and jeans. “It’s way colder in Ontario.” 

Ezra tried to forge that Tyler was leaving in a few days. But Ezra had already booked a flight and gotten his passport ready for December third. He hated saying goodbye to Tyler, but they face timed, and texted, and Snapchatted all day, so it never felt like he was too far away from his best friend. When he got off the plane and saw Tyler, it was like seeing him for the first time all over again. His heart melted and butterflies beat their wings against the walls of his stomach. He was by no means conventionally attractive, in fact, a lot of people found Tyler Burrell to be downright offputting. Tyler had a few small tattoos on his face.Ezra would wager that Tyler was at least seventy-five percent tattooed. He had never seen Tyler’s ass, but he was pretty sure there was at least one tattoo there. The ends of his hair were blonde, the rest grown out to a natural dark-brown. Ezra often found himself looking at Tyler’s hands, calloused from guitar playing, like his own. Tyler sometimes wore gaudy rings. He was much more into the rockstar life than Ezra was. Between the two of them, Tyler was the more outgoing one, he drank more, did drugs at parties. Ezra hated when Tyler drank too much. He could get a few beers in and be totally fine. But Utterly Hammered Tyler was either extremely depressing or incredibly mean, there was nothing in between. 

They entered the busy shopping street, St.George street. Ezra almost lost track of Tyler in the costumed throngs. This would be a lot easier if I could just hold his hand Ezra thought as he turned around to look for Tyler for the third time. He found Tyler standing in front of a store entirely dedicated to fancy popcorn, flirting with a sample girl and eating bright orange popcorn. “We gotta go.” he said, grabbing Tyler’s elbow. 

“Yeah. Sorry.” Tyler shrugged at the sample girl and followed Ezra into a door that lead to an indoor corridor. He looked around for the right storefront. This afternoon, Ezra had called this place that he had walked by a million times. He was shocked to find that they weren’t booked solid like every other ghost tour place in town. Maybe they sucked. Tyler wanted cheesey, maybe he was going to get more than he asked for with this. 

“Participate In A Real Paranormal Investigation!” An aged and hand-painted sign in the window read. 

Underneath it were advertisements for tarot card readings, protective spells and aura readings. 

“Where the fuck are you taking me, man?” Tyler laughed, looking at the signs. 

“On a ghost hunt.” Ezra went into the doorway and was immediately hit with a heavy scent of incense. “Ghost hunt, then maybe dinner and bar hopping.” 

“Dinner sounds good. I’m up for some fries.” Tyler looked around the store, the place was dimly lit and smoky. The walls were lined with books on the occult and decks of tarot cards for sale. There were racks of dried herbs all around and a closed door that said “Reading Room : Private divinations Monday - Friday, 12pm-4pm” 

From out of the back of the store, behind a beaded curtain, an elderly man emerged. His hair was long and white, he wore a wide brimmed felt hat and walked with a cane that he had probably carved himself on his front porch. Tyler had to try not to laugh. 

“You Ezra?” The man said to neither of them in particular. 

“I’m Ezra” Ezra offered the man a hand and he shook it. 

“This is Tyler.” Tyler shook the man’s hand as well. 

“I’m George. I won’t be taking you on your investigation. It’s a bit past my bedtime.” He was joking, but the man probably did go to bed pretty early. He had to be at least eighty. “However, my grandson’s gonna show you both a real interesting time” He spoke with a slight southern accent that, to Ezra’s ear sounded very much like the man hailed from Georgia. “Casey!” George called. 

“Just a second!” A moment later, Casey appeared. Tyler and Ezra looked him over. He was about their age. Twenty-seven at the most. His hair was shaggy and ginger. Freckles littered his cheeks. “Hey.” he said, casually. His lips were chapped, Ezra noticed.He looked pretty tired. He wore jeans with holes in the knee and a grey sweatshirt. “So we’re going to go to a few haunted places, but first I need to grab the equipment and we need to walk to the van. It’s all the way in the city garage, so it’ll be a few blocks.” Casey sounded like he had said this hundreds of times. There was nowhere downtown to park a car. Most people parked their cars in a five-story garage just outside of the main hub of town. 

“Why the hell is there no parking in this town?” Tyler whispered to Ezra as they followed Casey out of the shop. 

“This town is 450 years old, the streets were barely meant for horses.” Ezra realized that Tyler had not paid a word of attention to anything that Ezra had told him during the tour of his hometown that he had so artfully thought out before Tyler arrived. Of course he hadn’t. Sometimes Ezra really doubted if Tyler cared enough about him for an actual friendship, or if Tyler just need someone to get wasted and take selfies with. He couldn’t help himself, though. He couldn’t resist Tyler, despite his tendency to be utterly awful. Ezra felt incredibly stupid about it. People told him to stay away from Tyler, that Tyler Burrell was nothing but trouble. Ezra would end up broken at the very least, used up and cast aside when Tyler found someone else to tear up. Or worse, taking the blame for something bad that Tyler had done. But Ezra, like Tyler, had a hard time listening to things that he didn’t want to hear. That was what had gotten Ezra this far, never taking “no” as an answer when it came to anything that stood between him and his dreams of becoming a rockstar. Now that he had achieved some relatively minor success, he felt like he could run with the big dogs now. Tyler was not a much bigger dog than he was, but Tyler was definitely on the bigger side of fame. He had at least had his band’s shirts sold in Hot Topic. Maybe that just made him a money-hungry sell out. But people listened to his music and he had adoring fans. Ezra did too, but not like Tyler. 

“So are you guys from around here?” Casey asked. 

“I am!” Ezra piped up. 

“I live in Canada” Tyler replied “I’m just visiting my very best friend.” He playfully elbowed Ezra. Ezra smiled and elbowed him back. He was so tempted to just reach out for Tyler’s hand. He was getting to the point where he felt like he was going to explode. Something had to give with this hopeless crush that had been going on for the better part of a year. He could bring it up at dinner after this? Or at the bar when they were both drunk. Or he could just let it fade a little like it always did when Tyler went home. 

The city garage came into view and keys jingled in Casey’s hand. 

“I swear I’m not going to take you guys out and murder you.” He said as he unlocked a white van. 

“You sure about that?” Tyler raised his eyebrows as he got in the back seat of the van. The trunk was filled with equipment of all kinds, from flashlights to meters, to stuff Tyler couldn’t even name. 

Casey turned on the ignition and began backing out. 

“First stop, the Lighthouse.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ezra, Casey and Tyler ditch their ghost tour for some fun.

They rolled through the streets at an almost creep speed. There were so many people crowding the streets that they could hardly get through. Finally, they made it onto the bridge that would take them across the Matanzas and onto the island. Ezra could see the lighthouse from the bridge where they were stuck while a boat went underneath. He had climbed to the top of the lighthouse many times. He had been on school field trips to it, and the last one to the top was a rotten egg. It was a lot of stairs, stairs he didn’t feel like climbing today. 

The van finally got over the bridge, and traffic finally thinned out. Casey was pretty quiet behind the wheel. He could tell that Ezra and Tyler were the kind of guys to mess around and try to lure out the spirits. Casey, who had seen and heard enough paranormal things in his life to fully believe, and to never want to see any of it again, knew he was in for a rough night.  Casey pulled the van up in front of the park that sat in front of the lighthouse. He removed the keys from the ignition and stuffed them into his pants pocket. 

“So we can’t go into the lighthouse. But this is where most of the good stuff happens anyway. By good stuff, he meant, stuff that made him horrifically uncomfortable. Casey dug in the back of the van and pulled out a few K-2 meters and some cameras. 

“You two have cameras on you? Even your phone is fine.” Casey wanted to get out of here. The quicker these guys got scared the better. 

Tyler and Ezra nodded. Ezra got out of the van and began to wander among the trees in the park. The trees were old, their branches were gnarled and some even ung low enough to sit on. There were a few golden street lights near the edge of the park, and a darkened tennis court off to one side. Near the tennis court, there was a swing set and a jungle gym. The jungle gym and the swingset were both rusty and it seemed unlikely that anyone would still bring their kids here, but Casey said that during the daylight hours, there were always kids here being pushed by their parents on the swingsets. Ezra remembered playing out here when he was a kid. On field trips to the lighthouse, the kids would all sit at the picnic tables and eat their brown-bag lunches before being allowed to run around for a bit before getting on the bus again. 

He told them the story of the three little girls who had perished in the water just on the other side of the parking lot. When the lighthouse was being built, there was a cart that went from the bottom of the lighthouse to the water’s edge on a track. Someone forgot to set the break at the end of the track, all three girls drowned. Now, people often heard giggling, and sometimes the swings would move back and forth on their own. 

Tyler didn’t believe any of it. But Ezra was certain that he felt a little hand tugging at the hem of his shirt. He took some pictures with the flash on. Casey said that was the best way to catch anything, though it seemed counter productive. Ezra felt a little bit light headed. But he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to be the one to ruin this experience for Tyler, no matter how silly it was. 

Tyler, ever the flirt, was standing close by Casey “So, you ever see anything? You must be a professional ghost buster by now.” Ezra tried not to listen. Tyler’s flirting was annoying, at best. Ezra was pretty sure Tyler would never stop being a flirt, even if Ezra poured his heart out and laid it on the table in front of Tyler. He looked up at the night sky, and he was almost certain that he saw a little face in the trees. A faint giggle echoed in his ear.  He wanted to take off running, but something was keeping his feet firmly glued to the dirt. There was a rustle in the nearby trees and he really regretted not bringing a warmer jacket. 

“Find anything spooky yet?” Tyler said, breaking his attention away from Casey. “Nope. Getting a little chilly, though” He tried not to think too hard about the last few minutes. Casey came up to them and looked Ezra over. “You sure you’re alright? You look sort of pale. And your eyes are all wide.” At this remark, the K-2 meter began to light up. 

“Looks like they like you.” Casey gave Ezra a cheeky smile. 

“I don’t know if I want to be liked.” Ezra tried not to squirm. 

“Don’t be such a baby” Tyler gently elbowed Ezra. 

“Next stop?” Casey asked, wondering if they would guess. 

“The bars?” Ezra piped up, looking for some reason to get out of here before Casey could take them to anywhere else with even more spirits. Or possibly spirits that weren’t just harmless little kids. 

“I’m up for drinks. You wanna play hooky and go get hammered with us?”  Tyler playfully suggested they go to the pub that he had seen on the way here. 

Casey knew he really shouldn’t. But this was his only group for the night, and he could stay out as long as he wanted. It wasn’t like his grandparents would know if he stayed out all night. He always came in through the side door anyways. Nobody would hear him come in, he could easily lie his way out of it. 

“Alright, I’ll play hookie. Back in the van we go.” He grabbed the keys and headed towards the van. 

“He’s hot.” Tyler whispered

“You stick your dick in anything with a pulse. Besides he looks straight.” Ezra’s tone was a little venomous. 

“I look straight. You look straight. There’s no such thing as “looking gay” or “Looking bi” or whatever.  We both play for both teams. You never really know until you ask, right?”  _ Great, Tyler was probably going to straight up ask this guy if he was into guys. Way to not look like an absolute creep.  _  Ezra’s thoughts were sort of mean. He was kind of annoyed that Tyler was going after this guy. Even if Tyler had no idea about Ezra’s feelings and even if Ezra also thought the guy was as fine as can be. He wondered if Casey had any tattoos. It was hard to tell anything about him underneath that hoodie. Maybe he should amp up his flirting. Maybe he should snatch Casey right out from under Tyler’s nose. It wasn’t like Tyler could get anything more than a one-night stand out of this anyway. Monday morning, he would be on the first flight back home, and Casey would still be right down the street from Ezra. 

Ezra parked himself right in the front seat. 

Casey turned to him and gave him a sly smile. 

“What do you like to drink, Casey?” he asked “Guinness. I’m a simple kind of guy.” 

A more mature taste than Tyler, who was a connoisseur of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Not that a Guinness was anything fancy or amazing, but it beat drinking lightly tinted water with maybe a drop of alcohol in the whole can. Tyler could put away a case of that shit if he really felt determined. But when Tyler got into the liquor, that was a different story. 

They arrived at the pub and Tyler bought the first round. Pints of beer for everyone. They found a table and sat down . The place was a dive. It stunk to high heaven of cigarettes and the red leather on every seat was cracked, even though it had just been replaced after the bar flooded during the last hurricane. In one corner by the back door, a stage was set up for karaoke with a box of silly hats and props. A guy in a blond wig was drunkenly singing a Madonna song.  Tyler took a sip of his beer and sat down next to Ezra. 

“So, tell us a little more about yourself. How’d you get into the ghost hunting business?” Tyler raised his eyebrows and kept his eyes locked on Casey.

“Family business. My mom dumped me off with my grandparents one day and just disappeared. Apparently she’s living the suburban dream in Nebraska now, and her five other kids don’t know about me. Anyway. It’s my grandparent’s business. They started doing paranormal tours back in the eighties. And I’ve just been helping them out and working  at Scarlett O’Hara’s  for extra cash. So that’s my boring life story. What about you two?” 

. Tyler piped up “I drink, I party, I play music. I’m kind of a big deal” Ezra rolled his eyes. Sometimes Tyler was the most inarticulate, egocentric dickhead. 

Casey didn’t look particularly impressed. 

“I live here.” Ezra said “I live in a duplex over by the Flagler dorms so nobody ever says anything if it gets too loud at my place.  I was on the drum line in High School. And I did chorus. I guess that’s how I got so darn musical. Tyler and I are both in bands….Not the same bands. But we’re both vocalists. We met while touring a couple summers ago. We’ve been inseparable ever since.”

“So are you guys like...a thing?” Casey asked, setting his beer down on a coaster after a long sip. 

“Oh my god no!” Tyler said, as though the mere suggestion hurt him a little. Tyler’s tone stung Ezra just a bit too. He sounded like it was never going to even be a blip on his radar. 

The next round was more beer, then shots both regular and jelly. Tyler got up to sing on the karaoke machine. He sounded drunk and terrible. 

“This guy’s good enough to be touring?” Casey asked, taking the seat that Tyler had been previously occupying. 

“Yeah...when he’s on his game.” Ezra shrugged. He didn’t want to talk too much about Tyler right now. In fact, he was getting just a little bit cranky. Maybe it was time for him to go home. 

 

. By the end of the evening, neither of them was alright to drive. Casey would have to leave early in the morning in a cab to come get the van from the parking lot before his grandparents could find out that he had left the company vehicle at a bar. 

“You guys are the best.” Casey said, getting out of the cab that they had called outside of the bar. His house was even closer to Ezra's than he had expected. Ezra couldn’t believe he had never seen Casey before tonight 

“Pizza?” Tyler asked as they got out of the cab in front of Ezra’s place. It was a little after one in the morning. There was a place that delivered until three. 

“Yeah, I’m fucking starving.” Ezra pulled out his phone and called for pizza. He kicked off his shoes and drunkenly plopped on the couch. 

“Tyler?” He called out. Then he realized Tyler was in the bathroom. 

He sighed and rolled onto his side. He buried his face in a throw pillow. 

Tyler emerged from the bathroom and sat down on the floor next to Ezra. “Tonight was fun. We need to go back to that place tomorrow and get that guy’s number.” 

Ezra just let out a heavy sigh. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler and Ezra are not having a good time when they get home from the bar.

The pizza arrived. Ezra had drunkenly started to fall asleep. His couch was so comfortable. 

“Food’s here.” Tyler said, plopping down on the sofa after moving Ezra’s legs out of the way. 

“You dick…” Ezra groaned, his head spun as he sat up. He opened the warm, cardboard box and pulled out a thick slice of pizza. Food was so much better when he was hammered. He melted when the taste of the tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni hit his mouth. He was going to eat this pizza, and then he was going to go to bed. 

“So that guy…” Ezra said, and he totally regretted it “He was really hot.”

“Yeah he really was.” Tyler laughed, still in his jovial state of drunkenness. He had definitely stopped drinking at just the right time. Another couple of drinks and he would become the whiniest, most cantankerous asshole within a few hundred miles. He looked at Ezra and smiled. 

“I’m gonna fuck that guy by Monday.”  
“That’s a nice thing to tell me, Tyler. It’s not like I’m in love with you or anything.” Ezra’s words were a little slurred and he was starting to feel pretty annoyed. 

“That’s funny, Ezra.” Tyler was legitimately laughing at him now. 

“Yeah, it’s a real fucking hoot.” Ezra crossed his arms, forgetting that there was still a piece of pizza in his hand, which was now all over his shirt. This brought on a new peal of laughter from Tyler. 

“Oh wait…” Tyler was trying to catch his breath “Oh wait! You’re fucking serious!” Maybe Tyler was past the point of drunk but also not a dick. 

“I’m going to bed. I never should have said anything.” Ezra got up, tossed the half eaten slice at Tyler, who looked stunned. “Christ, Ezra! You don’t have to be such a little bitch!”

Ezra turned around 

“You’re always fucking like this! You are the actual worst drunk! I don’t know why i keep going drinking with you! You always turn into an even bigger asshole than when you’re sober!” Now Ezra was looking for a fight. He was pissed, he was marching down the war path. He would kick Tyler’s ass right here in his own living room. 

“You need to go to AA.” Ezra spat. 

“No I fucking don’t. You need to stop being such a whiny crybaby who can’t run with the big boys. I’ve got it all, Ezra, and you just wanna suck my cock and ride my coattails.” 

Ezra was halfway to his room. He spun around and stomped as fast as he could back into the living room. He gave Tyler one solid clock to the jaw.  

Tyler wasn’t going to let this go so easy. He swung at Ezra, and he was hit in the shoulder. Ezra flung himself at Tyler with as much force and dexterity he could in his intoxicated state. Fists flew, hot tears streamed down Ezra’s face, and he was sure he was going to have a big shiner the next day. Tyler had him pinned down to the ground, he struggled to get away. 

Tyler looked rough, he fell on top of Ezra, his arms giving out. 

Ezra couldn’t keep going. His head was spinning and he was way too tired. All he could think about was his bed, but he couldn’t muster the energy to move Tyler off of him. He closed his eyes and tried to compose himself as best as he could, but his breath was still ragged and he was still crying. Was this what he really wanted? Was this who he really wanted? Were him and Tyler just going to keep fighting until it got to be too much? Or until one of them got seriously hurt. Ezra had just begun to regain his breath when Tyler snatched it away in one fell swoop. He felt lips, burning hot and tinged with a little bit of blood from where Ezra had landed  good punch. 

It took him a moment to realize what was going on. But he didnt fight it. He couldn’t and he didn’t want to. This moment couldn’t last forever, so Ezra did his best to savor it. But Tyler kept kissing him, over and over. 

“I’m sorry.” Tyler said, pressing their foreheads together.

“God, I’m so sorry.” He planted one more incredibly tender kiss on Ezra’s lips and got up. He wobbled and almost fell, he then threw up on what was left of the pizza. Ezra couldn’t take anymore. A fresh flood of tears was about to pour out. He would take care of this mess tomorrow. Ezra got up off of the floor and slipped away into his room. He shut and locked the door behind him and almost fell as he kicked off his shoes and shoved his jeans down. He curled up in bed, his head foggy and his heart hurting. 

Ezra woke up with a hangover. He crawled out of bed and into the kitchen for a glass of water. Tyler was passed out still on the living room floor. Something about seeing him there, and being able to smell the vomit from all the way where he was standing made him want to pack Tyler up in  box and overnight him back to Canada. He held his breath while taking the vomit-covered pizza and putting it into a garbage bag before taking it outside, if only to get rid of the smell, though Tyler really should be the one to clean up his own messes. 

Back in the kitchen, Ezra made some plain toast and coffee. He looked at the clock, it was almost eleven. Tyler probably wouldn’t wake up for another couple of hours. He got up from the kitchen table, took a long hot shower and got dressed. He combed his hair and brushed his teeth before walking out of the house, taking his keys and his wallet with him. The fresh air made him feel a little better as he set out on his walk. 

He walked downtown. It was early Sunday morning and the crowd was almost non-existent. He walked toward the bay front to take in the sea breeze and collect his thoughts. Last night had been wild. It had been intense. But it had started out great. He put his hands in the pocket of his hoodie and sat criss-cross on the sea wall, looking out onto the ocean. 

To say that Ezra had a lot of feelings right now would be the understatement of the year.  Tyler had kissed him last night, after kicking his ass and giving him a black eye. He should be kicking Tyler out on the street. He suddenly felt like a doormat. He was the one feeling kicked out when Tyler was still laying in HIS living room. 

He got up and walked down St. George street, back to the occult shop. He slipped in the door and was greeted by George. 

“Hey there! Where’s your friend? Did y’all have a good time last night?” the old man asked. 

“Yeah we did. Is Casey here , by Chance?” Ezra’s green eyes darted around the room. 

“What’s up?” Casey appeared behind him, stuffing the van keys in his pocket. 

“Can I talk to you alone?” Ezra was about to make a stupid decision while stone-cold sober. 

“Sure.” Casey assumed that the guy had some pictures he had taken the night before he wanted to show him. Normally when people have pictures they’re usually nothing. But once in awhile they had something genuinely terrifying. Casey lead Ezra into his grandma’s tarot reading room and shut the door. She was out buying groceries and wouldn’t be in for another hour. He turned on a few small rock salt lamps that gave the room a rosy, but subtle glow. 

“My friend thinks you’re hot.” Ezra said. 

“I’m flattered….” Casey was confused. 

“You’re straight, aren’t you?” Ezra was almost relieved. 

“No. But your friend is kind of a dick that needs help with his very obvious drinking problem.”  Ezra suddenly liked Casey a lot more. Ezra seemed to be the only one who noticed that Tyler had a problem. 

“Besides” Casey, too, was about to make a dumb move while sober. There was no excuse, really. 

“I think you’re the cuter one. Tyler came on a bit strong. You don’t seem like the type for that. “ Ezra was glad it was so dim in here, and Casey couldn’t see his face turning pink. He looked down at his shoes and smiled at the redhead. 

“Tyler is currently on my living room floor, passed out and intoxicated. He threw up in our dinner last night and we got into a fight...but he threw up after the fight.” Ezra decided not to mention the kissing. 

“I figured something went down. That’s quite a shiner you’ve got.” Casey seemed sympathetic.

“Anyway...Tyler goes home on Monday.” Ezra didn’t really know where he should go from here. He wasn’t the smoothest guy around. He was actually sort of shy. “Tyler goes home on Monday and I was wondering if maybe we could start over?” 

Casey looked pleased. “Yeah, I’d like that. But I mean, if you want, I can totally come to your place and have super loud sex with you so Tyler can hear it.” Casey winked at him. 

Ezra laughed. 

“I think I’m gonna kick him out. He can either reschedule his flight or get a hotel…” Ezra felt so disappointed. “I don’t want to see him again until he gets some help. Last night wasn’t his first rodeo…”

“Yeah I feel you. “ Casey handed Ezra his phone, with a blank contact slot. Ezra took it and punched in his name and number before handing it back and giving Casey his own phone. 

“I gotta go.” Ezra said softly. 

“Stay safe. Call me if you need help.” Casey walked him out. 

Ezra was surprised by the entire encounter. It went much better than he originally expected. He walked home. Ezra braced himself and slid his key into the lock. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler and Ezra have one more incident before Tyler goes home.   
> Casey makes a move.

Chapter 4

When Ezra opened the door, Tyler was sleeping on the sofa. He had moved since Ezra left. He sighed and went to nudge Tyler awake. He had to kick him out. He was getting stressed just thinking about having to keep Tyler in his house for any longer. 

“Hey, Gorgeous.” Tyler was groggy, and any other day seeing him after he had just woken up would have been one of the sexiest sights to behold. But Ezra’s eye was too swollen and sore for any of that stuff. Right now he saw Tyler as the biggest pain in his ass that he could possibly imagine. 

“Tyler…” He said, in his most serious tone that he could muster. Ezra meant business. 

But Tyler had other plans. He was obviously still a little drunk. 

“Yeah, babe?” Oh gross. Ezra tried not to squirm. 

Tyler pulled him down onto the sofa, Ezra let out a gasp of surprise followed by a brief struggle as Tyler began to kiss him again. He smelled like barf, and Ezra was able to immediately push him away this time.

“You wanted it last night!” Tyler was genuinely confused. 

“You were pinning me down!” Ezra was pretty mad now. He was ready to fight Tyler all over again. 

“Well maybe you shouldn’t tell someone you love them when you’re wasted?” Tyler tried to phrase it as a polite suggestion but it certainly didn’t come out that way. 

“Out.” Ezra spat. “Get the fuck out of my house! Change your flight, get a hotel, go sleep on the fucking sidewalk tonight. I don’t care! Just get out!” 

Ezra stormed off, shutting his bedroom door behind him. 

Tyler felt empty. He knew he had made a huge mistake.  He started to pack up his things. He loved Ezra to a point that it made him hurt. But he always ruined everything he loved. He was a self-destructive whirlwind, always fucking up in some way or another. He sighed and haphazardly threw clothes in his suitcase, which sat on the bed in Ezra’s guest room.  

Maybe he could try to make this right somehow? He didn’t want to leave things raw and painful between them, if this really was the end of what he thought was supposed to be a life-long, beautiful friendship, if not something much more than that. Tyler sighed and closed up his suitcase. 

He brushed his teeth and changed his clothes to get rid of the smell of vomit and the pub. Gently, he knocked on Ezra’s door. Ezra wasn’t angry anymore. He was just hurt. He had tucked himself under the blankets and he fully intended to stay there until Tyler had fully vacated his home. 

“Ezra…” Tyler tried the door and found it unlocked.  He stepped into the room and found Ezra half asleep in the dark.  He gently nudged his friend and Ezra stirred. 

“What?” He asked, more exasperated than anything. Ezra sat up and glared at him. 

“I came to apologize….” Even if this didn’t fix everything, it would at least leave them on a better note. 

Ezra felt conflicted. But against his better judgement he pulled back the covers and patted the spot next to him. Tyler slid into bed next to Ezra and pulled the covers up over them. 

“Did you really mean it?” Tyler asked as he tucked his arm under the pillow.

“I did… I’ve had those kinds of feelings for you since we met.” Ezra was already about to cry again. He hated himself for it, he was supposed to be pissed off. But he couldn’t stay mad at Tyler. He knew Tyler had a problem, an addiction, that needed his support and understanding if it was going to get any better. 

“God, we should have said something about this sooner.” Tyler placed his hand on Ezra’s lower back. His fingers massaged small, firm circles into the soft skin underneath his tee shirt. 

“I know...But your drinking started to get really fucking bad, and I kind of didn’t want to  say anything about it because I didn’t wanna be the guy with the boyfriend that’s always hammered. I didn’t want to put up with you being a drunk piece of shit.  So you can either get your act together and stop drinking so damn much, or you can forget the whole thing. The ball is really in your court now. “ Ezra was trying to hold his voice steady, but Tyler’s warm hand on his back was making it almost im possible. He let out a heavy sigh and tried his best not to lean into Tyler’s touch. 

“I’ll do my best, ok? I’ll go to meetings when I go home...I’ll do whatever you want.” The hand crept up even further and fingers were trailing down his spine. Fuck it. Fuck the whole thing! Ezra had dreamed about this moment for years, and even if it wasn’t perfect, he was going to enjoy the touching. He hadn’t been touched by anyone like this in months, almost a year. He let Tyler touch his bare back, his shirt riding up even more. 

“Alright.” Ezra shifted and placed his hand on Tyler’s chest. “Alright, you take care of this. I’ll be here for you.” 

Tyler’s hand was on his hip now. He was so close, Ezra felt like he was on fire. Tyler kissed him again, better than the kiss from the night before. His lip was still swollen and any thoughts of Casey were so far from Ezra’s mind that it was almost like the other man didn’t exist. But Ezra knew this was bad. He was doing this just to say he did it. Tyler kept kissing him, slow and deep, then finally down to his neck and chest. “Oh god…” Ezra groaned as Tyler softly bit him. 

Tyler was completely on top of him now,  Ezra felt bad about this. He felt like he was doing something stupid and irrational, but he really couldn’t help himself at this point. He may be pissed off, he may not be as in love with Tyler as he had once been, but the lust was still there and if he could fool around with this asshole just once, he would be totally satisfied. He’d screw Tyler, then Casey and feel like he’d won the second prize, because first would be having them both at once. 

Tyler was undressing him slowly, taking everything off of him with as much attention and care as possible. He pulled Tyler’s shirt over his head and wrapped himself around Tyler. He felt so dirty, and he would feel dirty afterwards. But for now, he wanted some fun. Tyler was kissing him all over, his whole body. Kisses to ever inch of his stomach that got his heart pounding and his mind clouding. 

“You...You really have to go…” Ezra sighed.

“I’ll go home after your legs stop shaking.” Tyler’s smirk was deadly and Ezra’s legs were, indeed shaking. Tyler slid Ezra’s boxers off and licked slowly up his cock. 

“You’ve been wanting me to fuck you for so long. How’s it feel to finally be getting what you want?” Tyler now assumed that things were peachy between them, and that Ezra wasn’t going to be kicking him out because he would without a doubt, be wanting more of this. 

“So good...It feels dirty as fuck but so good.” Ezra stared at the ceiling and tried not to think too hard about what was going on. He focused on the sensation and tried to keep his eyes closed. Tyler sucked his cock and made every dirty noise in the book while doing it. Ezra struggled to hold still.

“Stop! Stop!” He pleaded, he was so close and he didn’t want it to be over just yet. 

“You were so close.” Tyler popped off with a lewd,wet noise. 

“Yeah.” Ezra closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath. 

Ezra sat up and reached into his bedside table. He passed Tyler a condom and a bottle of lube. He rolled over onto his stomach so he wouldn’t have to look at Tyler while they did this. Tyler, feeling smug, started out with one finger. Pressing it deep inside Ezra and stretching him open until he could take a second.  Ezra squirmed and whimpered, his face buried into the pillow that he had been crying into not long before. Ezra whined and bit the pillow when he felt Tyler pushing into him. “Fucking hell…” He groaned as he stretched to accommodate Tyler’s girth. 

Tyler held still for a moment to take in the sensation of Ezra’s tight heat around him. Holding on to Ezra’s hips, Tyler started to thrust. Slowly, in then out and back in again, building a comfortable pace and rhythm. He hit the right spot and Ezra cried out. 

“Found it?” Tyler chuckled. 

“Yeah you did…” Ezra was kind of annoyed by Tyler speaking, but he tried to brush it off. 

Tyler kept fucking him, and Ezra kept burying his moans into the pillow as he bucked his hips back as he got closer. 

“You first.” Tyler said. 

“How generous of you.”Ezra had assumed Tyler would just bust without even asking Ezra if he was close. Lucky for Ezra, he was almost there. He groaned so loud the neighbors had to have heard him and made an enormous mess onto his sheets. Tyler pushed hard and came, his hips finally going still. He held on a second longer, then pulled out of Ezra, who flopped back over onto the bed. 

“Out. Don’t come back until you aren’t a fucking alcoholic anymore.” Ezra had to stay firm on this. 

“Alright…” Tyler was confused. He had just given Ezra the ride of his life, and he was still getting kicked out? He got dressed, grabbed his suitcase and got in an Uber. He went to a coffee shop and called the airport. For a hefty, shitty fee, he could be on the next plane home. He took it, paid the fee and had to pay for yet another expensive uber to the airport. 

Ezra took a shower and put his sheets in the wash. He checked his phone

[text: Casey] Did you kick him out? 

Ezra looked at the text and sighed 

[Text:] Yeah. He’s gone. 

 

Casey sat behind the register at the shop, his phone in his hand. There hadn’t been a customer in over an hour and he was ready to go  home. But he had to stay until five, so texting Ezra was what was keeping him busy for  now. 

[Text: Ezra] Good. How does dinner tonight sound? I can bring something to your place if you want. 

[Text: Casey]  Sounds amazing. 

He texted Casey his address.

Ezra liked the sound of that. He didn’t want to leave the house today. Or ever again. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and turned on the tv. He watched Netflix and took a long nap before fixing himself a sandwich and doing some laundry. 

Later that night, at around eight,  the doorbell rang. Ezra opened it and was pleased to see Casey standing there, a bag of Chinese takeout in his hands and a warm, bright smile on his face. Ezra felt a flood of excitement when he saw Casey standing on his doorstep. The same flood of excitement that he used to feel when he saw Tyler, leaning against the doorjamb with a brand new bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand and a sexy smirk on his face. 

“Hey.” Ezra said, a little bit breathless. 

“Hey Can I come in?” Casey asked 

“Yeah, totally.” Ezra got out of his way and showed him to the kitchen, where he set down the brown paper bag and began unloading its contents onto the counter. 

They piled their plates high with chicken, rice and vegetables and went to the couch to eat it, each of them with a beer from the fridge. 

“So you gotta tell me everything.” Casey said, at least they wouldn’t be short for conversation. 

Ezra sat criss-cross, his plate balanced on his lap. 

“So I met Tyler a few years ago on tour.”  
“Tour?” Casey asked “Like you’re in a band?” 

Ezra nodded. “We both are. Not in the same band though.”

“I’ll have to look you guys up.” 

Ezra laughed. 

“So I met him and I immediately just fell in love with him. I didn’t even know I liked guys. He was just… So hot? I know that sounds stupid. But he was just this gorgeous badboy. And I’m a little country bumpkin? You feel? I grew up here, I barely left this town until I got a record deal. I know. It’s crazy. So we started hanging out. And Tyler drank a lot. But he knew where to stop. And it just sort of got to the point where he was drinking all the time, and he was really really drunk. Like belligerently drunk. And he started doing coke and stuff. It just got...pretty shitty. Because he started getting to be kind of an asshole. He would clean up sometimes though. Something would scare him once in awhile. He would stop partying. He’d just burn out for a while. He would stay home. Or he would come stay with me. And when he stayed with me he always made me remember why I loved him all over again. And I never got any indication that he loved me back. Or even really liked me as a friend. He’d say I was his best friend and stuff. But I don’t know if I ever believed it.  Anyway, he came down about a week ago. And when we went out with you and everyone got trashed, I told him that I loved him when we were home. He kind of laughed at me. And then we got into that argument. And the fist fight. He pinned me to the ground when we were fighting. He pinned me down and kissed me. And...God he fucking traps me sometimes. I slept with him before he left today.”  
Ezra had considered not telling Casey that, since he, without a doubt, planned on sleeping with Casey at some point. If not tonight.

“Was he at least good?” Casey took a long swig of his beer. He didn’t feel particularly bothered by the fact that Ezra had slept with Tyler.  

“Yeah he was ok.” Ezra turned red. “I told him not to come back until he had gotten his shit together.” 

“Yeah I would have said the same thing.” Casey put his plate on the coffee table and looked at Ezra. 

“Do what’s best for you. Do what makes you happy.” He smiled and grabbed Ezra’s hand. That was smooth. Ezra squeezed his hand and Casey squeezed back. 

“What are your plans for the next week or two?” Ezra asked, looking down at their held hands. 

“I’m leaving tomorrow for a house cleansing in Pensacola. It’s gonna be a while. I mean it usually takes at least three days. I’m always going places.” Casey rolled his eyes. “But Grandpa can't do it anymore. My cousin is moving down soon. She’s really into it. I at least won’t have to go by myself.” Casey shrugged. 

“Well...You can always call me when you’re not busy. And text...Snapchat. Whatever floats your boat.” Ezra winked at him and they both laughed. 

“You’re a terrible flirt, but it’s pretty cute.” 

Casey left later that night. Ezra tucked himself into bed and finally got some decent sleep. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler cleans up his act. And his house.

**Chapter 5**

Tyler got off the last-minute flight that he had booked out of the U.S and got in his car. It had been over ten hours since he had had a drink, and that was something, Tyler assumed. He sighed and made the long drive from the airport to his house. When he got back, he took his suitcase out of his car and left it by the door where it would stay for the next three weeks. 

“I can’t just throw it all out, now can I?” Tyler said, looking at the VERY well stocked liquor cabinet. In his kitchen. He made himself a drink and sat down on the couch to stew about everything that had happened. He sat down on his couch and downed the drink as quickly as he could. He would finish the cabinet. Not buy anymore. And then he would clean up his act. 

Of course, he did not. He bought more liquor, he drank it all. He kept drinking. Finally, it all caught up to him. He woke up in the hospital, attached to an IV. His head hurt and so did everything else. He wanted his phone, to call Ezra but he had no idea where it was. All he wanted at that very moment was Ezra. 

This had to be rock bottom. It absolutely had to be. 

He was eventually discharged, sent packing from the hospital and into a taxi with a prescription to stop drinking and a bunch of leaflets about Alcoholics Anonymous. He got home, happy to find a spare key under his doormat. The place was filthy. It stunk to high heaven. He would start tomorrow. Now he needed to rest. He took a shower and crawled into bed. Tyler slept for fourteen straight hours, and when he woke up, he was ravenous. He got dressed and looked in the fridge. It was full of completely rotted food. 

“Fuck fuck fuck.” He sighed. He found his spare car keys (God only knew where the original ones were) and went out for a drive-thru breakfast. He ate and drove, finally arriving back home after stopping for trash bags. 

Once Tyler got in the door he opened the box of trash bags and began to pack them full of solo cups, bottles, cans, everything he could possibly put in recycling. He had four bags of bottles that had been sitting in his shitty mess of a house since before Ezra had told him to go home and clean up his shit. He dragged the bags to the curb, the recycling truck came tomorrow if he was remembering correctly. 

“Alright.” He said to himself, dragging himself inside. “I’m done.” All the bottles were gone and he had nothing left to tempt him.  The house still stunk. He needed to fix that. He started with the moldy dishes in the sink. He hand-scraped the gunk off of each one and put them in the dishwasher. He would need to do at least three loads to get rid of this mess. Tyler wanted to give up. He wanted to search the internet and find himself a maid. Or at least someone to do the initial cleaning for him. Then he could just maintain it. He scrubbed the counters and the walls with something that smelled like lemons, and probably hadn’t been used since his mom gave it to him when he moved out. There were some other supplies in here too, including some kind of powder that was supposed to get smells out of carpet. Tyler walked to the living room and got on his hands and knees. He took a big whiff of the carpet and was immediately revolted. Then he noticed the stains everywhere. He had to break out the big guns. Still sitting on the filthy floor, he pulled out his phone and began to look up places to rent carpet shampooers. He saw a company that was willing to come do his whole house for a reasonable price and immediately booked an appointment for the next day. 

He decided against giving up and getting a maid,, though. Cleaning up the house, and realizing the magnitude of the mess he had made of his home as well as of his life would be good for him. He would have to fix this himself. Once he had cleaned his house, and gone one whole week without touching a drop of alcohol, he would call Ezra. Just to check in. He wouldn’t expect anything from Ezra. Nothing at all.  He just wanted to hear his voice. 

Tyler unpacked his suitcase and dumped the contents of it into the washing machine. He walked around the house and gathered up items of dirty clothes and towels so he could get the washer running while the dishwasher ran. It almost felt like doing two things at once. His house was small, but here by himself, it felt enormous. He checked in a couple of closets and found his vacuum cleaner.  First was the living room, then the two bedrooms. It would do for now until his floors could be properly cleaned the next day. The whole house seemed to be filled with the rumbles and noises of productivity. It felt soothing, and reassuring . If he could just keep this house and his clothes clean, if he could just get himself on a real schedule, he could start getting on the right track to getting Ezra back. He knew Ezra didn’t trust him anymore, and he may not trust Tyler ever again. But Tyler had to try. 

The next morning, after a great deal of furniture moving, the carpet shampoo man was working his magic while Tyler sat on his front porch with his laptop. He had seen one or two of the first loads of water that came out of the carpet cleaner. It was black, now it was grey. It was early morning. He felt like he had been hit by a bus. Tyler never got up this early, and suddenly regretted getting such an early cleaning appointment. He sipped his black coffee and began to look for Alcoholics Anonymous groups in town that were having meetings soon. Much to his surprise, he saw that one was meeting that night in a rec center a couple of miles away. He immediately decided that he had to go. Finding one on this date at this time, was absolutely a sign. 

He was still itching to call Ezra. But he also realized he didn’t have a phone. That was one more thing he had to worry about. He had to wait for the carpet cleaner to leave before he could go anywhere. He walked out to his car and peered in. It was dirty. Of course it was. To give himself something to do, and to keep his mind off of drinking and off of Ezra, he started to clean it out. Getting the trash out of the back seat, old receipts mostly from the liquor store and fast food places. Next came shaking out the floor mats before vacuuming out the inside and spraying a little febreeze, since he didn’t have an actual car freshener. He wiped down the steering wheel and was utterly surprised at how much gunk had come off of it. 

Once he felt good about the inside of his red Hyundai Santa Fe, he worked on the outside, hosing it down and cleaning it off with car soap he found in his garage, that he was almost positive that he didn’t own. Once he dried the car off and hand-waxed it , with yet again another thing he was surprised to find in his own garage, Tyler had worked up a sweat and felt as distracted as he possibly could. It felt good to accomplish something. He looked at the clock in his car, it was almost noon. He normally wouldn’t be getting up for another three hours. Instead, he had gotten up at seven-thirty to be ready for the carpet guy’s arrival at eight. 

Tyler wasn’t sure if it was his need to be completely consumed by his need to be distracted from any thoughts of drinking and Ezra, or if he was really ready to grow up and get his life together. Either way, he felt pretty good and hoped it would last. 

“I’m all done here!” The carpet guy said as he packed up the last of his equipment. Tyler paid the man and watched him drive away. Tyler got in his car and went out to get a new phone. He paid a pretty penny for a new Iphone, after waiting around the busy store forever and waiting for his name to come up on a queue. His phone had no contacts in it, but when his account was loaded onto the new phone, he found he had a slew of messages waiting for him, all of them with a string of numbers he didn’t recognize. The only two numbers he had memorized were Ezra's and his mom’s. And there were about thirty missed calls from his mom. 

When he finally called his mom in his car in the phone store parking lot she sounded angry. He explained the whole situation to her and hoped she wouldn’t just be more pissed off. 

“So you didn’t tell him? Instead he told you, you got in a fist fight about it and now you’re back home and going to AA tonight after going on a cleaning rampage?” Liza Burell was trying to process the whole thing. She was just happy that somebody had gotten Tyler to the ER. 

“Alright. Meet me at the grocery store. We’re stocking your fridge before you go to your meeting.” Liza hung up and got her purse. 

At the grocery store, Liza began loading up a cart full of groceries for her almost thirty year old son, who was hopefully getting his shit together. 

“So what are you gonna do to get him back?” she asked. 

“I dunno. I wasn’t thinking too far past not being wasted all the time.”

“Well, maybe show him your sobriety chips. Get a reference from your sponsor. It’s good to have someone to vouch for you, ya know? She looked at Tyler. He was handsome still, but the drinking had put a few years on him. And she still hated that tattoo on his face, no matter how small it was. She was loading him up with fruits and vegetables and she fully intended to follow him home and put that crockpot she had bought him to good use. 

“Now if you’re really gonna recover, you gotta take good care of yourself.” She dropped a bottle of multivitamins in the cart. And I want you to at least text me every day, alright?  I wanna know how this is going.” 

Tyler was trying to take in everything that she was saying, some of it was sticking the rest was going one ear and out the other.  

They went back to the house, and Liza was astonished by how clean it was. 

“Shit, Ty, its even cleaner than when you bought it.” She could smell the freshly cleaned carpets. “Very nice.” She said, putting groceries on the counter and filling up the fridge. She started to cut up vegetables and throw them in the crock pot for soup. 

“Now you eat this and you freeze the rest. You gotta start cooking for yourself more. That’ll get you a man in no time. Everybody loves someone that can cook.” Tyler didn’t like to cook, but if it meant not having to down another McDouble without any Jack Daniels to follow, he was willing to give it another shot. Besides, the drinking and the junk food were really taking a toll on his digestive system. He hadn’t taken a shit that wasn’t difficult one way or the other in months. 

Tyler made coffee and watched carefully as his mother cooked. 

“Is Ezra still going to come up at Christmas?” She asked, dropping another handful of carrots in the crockpot. 

“I don’t know...I don’t think so. I think I really have to see how the next month goes.” He wasn’t even sure if he wanted Ezra to come up here. His mother looked disappointed. Liza liked Ezra. And she knew the full extent of how much Tyler loved him. She could see it in the way that they looked at each other, and how they acted together. They both just seemed so giddy and happy to be in each other's presence.  She could see something so soft and vulnerable in Tyler's dark brown eyes that immediately told her that Ezra held her son’s entire heart in the palm of his hand. It was something she had never expected Tyler to do. He had been so wild his whole life. And he was never serious about anything, let alone willing to have a serious relationship with someone. 

“Ma, I gotta go to my meeting soon.”  He said, looking at the clock on the kitchen wall. 

“Look at that. You do.” She grabbed her purse. 

“Go to a few meetings. Have some kind of tangible proof that you’re doing well. Then call Ezra. Call Ezra and apologize. Especially apologize for that black eye. Then leave the rest up to him. If it’s meant to be then it will be.”

“Thanks, Ma,” He gave her a hug as she left. She closed the door behind her and drove away. 

Tyler grabbed his phone, his wallet and his keys before heading out to the meeting. Several people were already there. The room was sparse, with a circle of chairs in the middle. Off to one side, there was a pot of coffee and a plate of cookies that people were milling about , chatting, happy to see one another. 

A little blond woman called the group together, and everyone sat down in a folding chair. 

“Hello everyone!” She said, she looked like a school teacher,in a pencil skirt and a pink sweater. “Hi, Tracy” The group seemed to say in unison. 

“I see a new face today!” She looked directly at Tyler. And the rest of the group followed her gaze. These people were from all different backgrounds. Some looked like housewives, others motorcyclists and some just looked like they could be anybody from anywhere. 

“We’ll start off with a moment of silence and then the serenity prayer, and then we’ll get started!” 

Tyler took that moment of silence to remember why he was here. To remember that he needed to do this for himself, not just for Ezra. 

Tracy lead them in the prayer, 

“God give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, 

Courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

He took that to heart. Maybe him and Ezra were done and there was nothing he could possibly do about it now. 

“Now why don't you introduce yourself?” Tracy said, pulling Tyler out of his thoughts. 

“I’m Tyler” He knew the format “And I’m an alcoholic. It’s my first meeting.” 

Everyone said hello to him, there were some congratulations on starting. The group went around and introduced themselves, then Tracy did a brief review of confidentiality and other things for them, particularly Tyler, to remember. They went around the room and told their stories. A mom had forgotten to pick her kids up from school for the third time, social services was going to get involved. Someone else had just finished DUI counseling. 

“Tyler, how has your week gone?” Tracy asked. 

“I woke up in the hospital. I was really drunk and I guess somebody just left me in the Er. I had alcohol poisoning. That had happened to me once before, but I didn’t take it as a sign. So I get out of the hospital, realize my phone is gone and I feel worse than I have in my life. So I just started cleaning. I cleaned my whole house and my car, and I even had the carpet shampooed. Then I came here. I think I’m finally ready.”

“Thanks, Tyler.” The group responded, according to meeting format. 

“Now, Tyler, When was the last time you drank?” Tracy asked. “Maybe three days ago?” he replied. Tracy pulled a little silver-colored coin out of her pocket and handed it to him. 

“This is your twenty-four hours of sobriety chip. You’ll get your next one when you reach thirty days.” 

“Thanks.” Tyler smiled. Now he had a goal in mind. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casey and Ezra get Spiritual. Very long chapter.

Ezra hadn't heard from Tyler in a while. And he was starting to get nervous. Things were going well with Casey, they were hanging out, getting really close. But nothing romantic seemed to be happening just yet. Which made Ezra fairly nervous. Maybe he would just have a new best friend in Casey. Ezra hadn’t attempted to contact Tyler, but he noticed that all of Tyler’s social media profiles had turned to total radio silence in the last few weeks. He dreaded the thought of what could have happened to Tyler in some kind of drunken stupor. 

He finally decided to call. He video called through Skype so he wouldn’t be charged some exorbitant fee for an international call.  Plus he wanted to get a good look at Tyler. He wanted to really be able to tell if he was messed up or not. 

The call rang and rang, but nobody picked up. Ezra began to fear the worst. 

He tucked himself up in a chair and tried to distract himself with TV, but nothing worked. 

Ezra called again, and it occurred to him that Tyler could just be ignoring him. Tyler could have moved on, found someone else who would love him for the drunken mess that he was.  But this time, on the third ring, Tyler picked up. 

He could see Tyler's livingroom. Behind him. 

“Hey…” He said, almost sheepishly. 

“Hey.” This seemed strange to Ezra. It was a Friday night. Tyler would normally be out painting the town red. Or whatever color his vomit happened to be that night. 

“How have you been?” Something felt off. 

“I’ve been ok.” Tyler shrugged. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to give Ezra the full account of what he was currently doing with his life At least not yet. 

“ What have you been up to?” Tyler decided to tell him everything, because if he was going to rebuild Ezra’s trust, he needed to get started as soon as he possibly could. 

“I’ve been um… Well I got alcohol poisoning. And I wound up in the hospital…” This pissed Ezra off, but he didn’t say a word. He figured he would let Tyler finish with whatever nonsense story he had so Ezra could have more ammo to yell at him with when he was done. 

“I got out of the hospital and I slept for like a day...Then I cleaned my whole house and went to  my first AA meeting today.”Ezra was almost a little impressed. His anger dissolved and he felt just a little bit better. At least Tyler was doing something productive. In fact, he was doing exactly what Ezra had told him to do when he sent him packing.

“If you can make it to thirty days, I’ll come up in December.” He wondered if it was harmful to make a suggestion like that. Or if it would provide Tyler with some sort of incentive for to work harder on his sobriety. 

“Alright. I’ll try to make sure the house stays clean long enough for that to happen.” Tyler laughed and wished he could kiss Ezra right now. 

“I want you to check in with me.” Ezra said. “At least text me. I know you were mad. But what happened was for the best.” Ezra was right. Tyler knew that he might not be here right now, sober and starting to get his relationship with Ezra back, if Ezra had just let Tyler’s drinking slide. 

They talked a little longer. Ezra had been hanging out with Casey, and Tyler tried to pretend like that didn’t sting him just a little. Of course Ezra was allowed to have other friends besides him, Tyler even had other friends. At least he used to. 

The conversation ended and Tyler thought about Ezra coming up next month. Hed be here for Christmas and New years if he did decide to come up, and of course if Tyler stayed sober. He thought about playing in the snow, then coming in and peeling off all those layers that were supposed to be keeping Ezra warm, but that thin-blooded boy was still chilly. He wanted to thaw Ezra out in the shower and take him straight to bed to roll around on the new bedding that Tyler needed to buy because his old stuff was gross, stained and full of holes that he couldn’t explain. 

They would have a good holiday, just the two of them, They’d make cookies and have hot chocolate. Tyler hadn’t been in the Christmas mood in years, but something was bringing it out for him in a way that was really beginning to surprise him. Maybe he would buy lights this year, Ezra was going to be there for almost the whole month. Maybe they could hang the lights together. His mom could come over, they could put up a tree. 

Tyler Burell was certain that he was going to become an entirely different person in the next few weeks. Or maybe he would become who he had been before he started drinking and partying too much. He wasn’t sure who he was without all that stuff. 

 

__________

Casey had a job to do. He had traveled five hours out of town to Pensacola and he had a haunting to look into. The stuff all seemed like standard poltergeist activity. Dishes flew out of cabinets, furniture moved, there were noises and smells that nobody could explain. The home had gone under several inspections from home inspectors as well as everyone who could check for carbon monoxide poison and electrical problems. The house had been blessed once. The haunting only got worse after that. The family had not attempted to talk to the entity. They said that they were too afraid. They had been living in a hotel for the last two weeks. 

He stopped for coffee and made his way to the hotel. The family gave him another, more detailed account of the hauntings. 

“It’s been hell on earth. I had to get three stitches when it threw a plate at me and hit me in the shoulder.” Mrs.Jacobs, the homeowner told him, through thick, fat tears. “My kids are too afraid to go in the yard, let alone the house.” Her two children, twins, a boy and a girl, sat on the edge of the hotel bed. Their eyes were wide and they looked like they had seen more than their fair share of things that someone their age should not have to see.  Mrs. Jacobs gave Casey her address and a key to her home. Casey promised her that he would do what he could to help them. 

He drove another fifteen minutes to the address. He put the key in the lock and turned it. The door clicked open and the house immediately felt strange. He looked around the front room. It was a fairly standard house. In the kitchen, a table sat with chairs piled up on top of it. 

“Ugh” Casey thought. Typical. The cabinets were open and the dishes were smashed all over the floor. Pieces of dinnerware crunched under his shoes. He doubted that this haunting was intelligent. But he had to reach out anyway. He had to see if there was anything this entity had to tell him that could help him find a way to get it out of here. Casey went upstairs to the children’s bedrooms. There were toys and clothes all over the floor, but that could just be the kids’ mess. He felt like he was being followed, but whenever he turned around he found that nothing was there. He pulled the K2 meter out of his pocket and watched for any signs.  He turned on his tape recorder and began to wander around the house, looking for readings. 

When he went back into the kitchen, the meter lit up. 

“Is anyone there?” he said into the empty room. 

He felt the presence behind him. He didn’t get nervous anymore, but he could definitely tell when something was around. He heard what sounded like a sigh in his ear. 

“If you want to talk to me, you can start by saying your name.” 

There was a low growl. 

“Fuck... “ he thought as he walked into the mother’s bedroom. In the open closet he saw something poking out. He knew he wasn’t supposed to touch people’s things, but he felt compelled. Casey had a feeling that he knew what it was. He pulled on the corner of the object that poked out of the closet. It came free with almost no effort.

A Ouija Board. 

“Really?” Casey came across at least one of these things every few months. He too, had thought it was just a game at first. But it was in no way just a game. Especially if there was already something negative going on in a person’s life.  It was fairly easy to let something in that mean to do harm. An Ouija board may not summon an archdemon from the depths of hell, that required a good deal more work. But it may let some kind of pissed off spirit into the house. 

Casey immediately left the house and picked up dinner for himself. It was already late and he would get back to Mrs. Jacobs in the morning when her kids were at school. There wasn’t any use in telling them that their mom had probably brought whatever it was into the house. He went back to his hotel room with his dinner and looked at his phone. Ezra had sent him a few texts. He opened FaceTime and called Ezra. 

Ezra picked up. He looked fresh from the shower. His hair was damp and curly, his cheeks were flushed red and he had his thick-rimmed glasses on instead of contacts. 

“Hey.” He said. Ezra looked cute, tucked into his bed, the down comforter pulled up around him. 

“How’s it going?” Casey asked. He wanted to reach through the phone and touch Ezra. They hadn’t kissed, they had hardly held hands. Casey knew he was moving too fast with this. But shit, Ezra was hot. 

“It’s going good. We rehearsed all day.  I got home about half an hour ago. This new album is gonna be great. I think it’s gonna hit the radio and everything.” Ezra looked so adorable when he was obviously just sleepily talking out of his perfect ass. “How’s the ghost hunting going?” He asked, taking off his glasses and further nesting himself into his bed. 

“It’s going. I went to the house today. Whatever’s in there trashed the place. It looks like some teenagers threw a huge party in the house. But I found the culprit.” Casey rolled his eyes. 

“Who was it? Old Man Jenkins? Did you rip his mask off?” 

“No. Unfortunately it isn’t some cranky old asshole. I found a ouija board.” Casey sighed

“Wait those are totally just toys, right?” Ezra was confused. Horrible hauntings from ouija boards were things that only happened in books and movies. 

“It’s not as big of a thing as people think. Normally they don’t cause Exorcist-level happenings. Normally they cause pretty run of the mill problems. Getting an actual demon takes way more work than fucking with a cardboard toy.” Casey shrugged. He had to confront Mrs. Jacobs tomorrow morning about the board. He had a feeling she might try to blame it on her kids. He highly doubted it was the kids. They seemed too young to know what a ouija board was. 

“I should be home in a couple days.” He said softly, sinking into his own hotel bed sheets. 

“Good. “ Ezra’s smile made everything better. 

“I’ll be here. And I”ll cook us dinner. And you should totally bring your pajamas and we’ll have ourselves a cozy little sleepover.” Ezra winked, which made Casey think that maybe they wouldn’t be keeping their pajamas on very long. The thought thrilled him. 

“I’m gonna let you get to sleep. You look exhausted.” 

“Thanks. I’ll text you in the morning. Later” Ezra gave him one last sleepy smile. 

“Later.” Casey said before he hung up. 

He reached down the front of his pajama bottoms and began to stroke himself. He imagined Ezra, all those tattoos. His round, perfect ass and his incredibly expressive face that Casey could never get out of his mind these days. He thought about Ezra underneath him, bucking his hips and begging for more, harder, faster. He came, hard and fast. Feeling limp, casey grabbed a tissue to clean up the mess. He laid back down and fell asleep almost instantly. 

Casey slept well. He normally had to before going in to start cleansing. He had to get a good night’s sleep and eat a big breakfast, and make sure his mind was clear. He couldn’t be thinking about Ezra, or anyone else. When he got out there, all his energy had to be focused on cleansing the house and getting the entity out. 

When he woke up the next morning, Casey went to the continental breakfast in the hotel. He picked up a plate and loaded it up with eggs, pancakes and bacon. He sat down at an empty table and dug in. The news was on, nothing good was happening in the world. The last few years had seen an uptake in new hauntings. Casey wasn't naive enough to think that the extra negativity in the world made more ghosts and more demons. But he knew that when people were miserable, when they were fearful, when they were off guard or too paranoid. It became easier for those things to latch on to someone and use them as a food source. 

Casey looked at his phone. It was definitely too early for Ezra to be up, so he didn’t text him yet. He called his grandfather to give him an update on what he had found in the house. 

When George answered, he sounded happy to hear from his grandson. 

“How’s it going out there?” He asked. 

“It’s a ouija board.”Casey replied

“Have you talked to them?” 

“Not yet. I’m eating right now. I’m going to go over there when I’m done. The board was poking out of a closet. Like they wanted me to find it.” 

“Be gentle when asking them, Casey. You never know why people use those. It’s a game to some people. But to others, it’s an act of desperation. They are so desperate to talk to a loved one  again, for whatever reason, they will take their chances on inviting evil into the house.” George was good with sympathy and understanding. Casey was a little less delicate when it came to stupid people doing stupid things. It was something he certainly needed to work on since most of his clientele were people who were scared out of their wits through no fault of their own. 

Casey finished his breakfast and threw his paper plate in the garbage before going back up to his room to grab the keys to the van that he had forgotten. 

He drove down to the hotel where Mrs. Jacobs and her two children were living. The kids would be at school by now. Casey knocked on the door and a ragged-looking Mrs. Jacobs answered the door. 

“Morning.” He said. This was going to be a tough conversation to have. 

“How did it go last night?” She asked, no time for pleasantries now. 

“ The place is a mess. It’s been running amok in your house since you left.” He now has to start being gentle. 

“Has anyone in your house been attempting to contact any spirits? Any lost loved ones… Sometimes people do this without even realizing what they’re doing. People play little games that accidentally invite things into the home. There was one game where you cross two pencils and ask questions to a little boy ghost, who is more than likely a demon. That got popular a while ago.” 

“You think my kids did this?” She asked, obviously offended. 

“No. I’m just saying that there are ways things can get in that we think are harmless.” 

Mrs. Jacobs sighed. She flopped down on the bed

“This is my fault” she groaned. This may be easier than Casey had originally assumed that it would be.” 

“Care to explain?” He said. 

“My husband passed about a year ago. I’m still devastated. I feel this huge, gaping wound in my chest every minute of every day. I just wanted to talk to him one more time. You don’t think it’s him do you? Is it him haunting the house and breaking the dishes? Is he angry at me for trying to contact him after he’s gone? I should have never bought that damn board. But it was at the thrift store. It was a dollar. I figured what harm could it do? A lot, obviously. ” 

Casey took a deep breath and stuffed his hands in his pocket. He had a feeling he was going to have to call Ezra and see how fast he could get out to Pensacola. 

“Mrs. Jacobs. “ Casey began “ Usually when hauntings are caused by ouija boards, whatever is haunting the place is not the person that the user was trying to contact. In fact, most of the time these entities are not even human. They’re usually poltergeists or other low-level supernatural entities that are just looking for something to do. I should be able to get your house cleared out. If you really want to see if your husband has some sort of message for you, there’s somebody I can bring out here for you to talk to. 

“I would appreciate that a lot. I just want to talk to him one more time.” 

“I’m going to go make a phone call. I’ll be right back.” Casey went outside the room and called Ezra. Ezra sounded just a little sleepy when he answered the phone. 

“What’s up?” He said

“I have an offer for you.”  casey was all business. 

“Is it sex?” Ezra didn't realize that Casey was being very, very serious.

“I can pay you in sex.” Casey shrugged. 

“Ok I’ll take it for two rounds.” Ezra laughed.

“You don’t even know what it is yet. I could be asking you to kill puppies.”

“But you’re not.” Ezra laid down on his bed.

“I need you to come out here and use your gift.” Casey had a feeling Ezra was going to say no. But he had to try anyway. For the sake of customer satisfaction, if nothing else. And to get this woman from stop using supernatural means to contact her dead husband. 

“What exactly do you need me to do?” Ezra felt pretty uncomfortable still. But he knew he had to hone this gift and use it to the best of his abilities. 

“I need you to read this lady. She tried to contact her dead husband through a ouija board and it fucked up her house. I need you to just come see if the guy has any messages for her and all that. I’ll pay you gas money.”

“Alright. I’ll come do this. But I get sex and gas money right?” 

“If you do this while I cleanse the house you will be payed handsomely in both sex and gas money. Hell I’ll even buy the lube.” He wasn’t sure if Ezra was kidding about the sex part, but the gas money was a given. 

“You got a deal.” Ezra rolled onto his stomach.

“When should I leave and what should I bring?” He asked. 

“Bring a couple days worth of clothes, and you should leave as soon as possible.” 

“Roger that. Text me the address.” Ezra hung up the phone and grabbed an empty duffle bag. He packed up and headed to his car.

Sex with Ezra made Casey nervous. Ezra was the first guy that he had ever been involved with. Casey had only discovered that he liked guys within the last year. But if they were going to be together, it would eventually happen at some point, wouldn’t it? The thought made him incredibly nervous. What if they started and he couldn’t stay hard? When he laid in bed last night, stroking his cock and thinking about Ezra, it just seemed more like the idea of Ezra. But what would happen when he was faced with the real thing? 

Casey went back into the hotel room and sat down next to Mrs.Jacobs. 

“I have a medium coming in to talk to you about your husband. I’ll cleanse the house tonight and hopefully you should be able to move back in in the next day or two. Once that happens we’ll give you a three month and a six month follow up call, so be sure to pick up when we do, just so we know everything is alright. 

Mrs. Jacobs nodded. 

“I’m going to go get started on your house.” 

Casey went back to the house and cleaned up the dangerous stuff. He swept up the shattered glass and closed the cabinet doors. He checked the house for anything else dangerous and took a break for lunch. He went back to his hotel room for a long nap and to ground himself before going back that night at nine to start the cleansing. 

Ezra arrived, after a five hour drive, around dinner time. He knocked on Casey’s hotel room door. 

“Hey.” He smiled when the door was opened. 

“Hey.” Casey let Ezra into the room. 

“I’ve missed you.” Ezra’s voice was almost a purr. 

Without thinking, Casey placed his hand on Ezra’s hip and gently pulled him closer.  Ezra wrapped his arms around Casey and hugged him tightly. 

“So um…” Ezra was attempting to make conversation even though ti wasn’t really needed. “Hm? Casey asked. 

“What should I do before we go?” Ezra looked worried. 

“I think you should get in bed with me. And we’ll take a long nap. We’ll leave here around seven. And I’ll take you to Mrs. Jacobs.”  he pulled Ezra over to the bed. Ezra kicked off his shoes and shimmied out of his jeans and his socks before climbing into the bed with Casey. 

Casey wrapped his arms around Ezra, who was loving every second of this. Casey couldn’t help himself. He leaned over and kissed Ezra, soft and slow. Ezra placed his hand against Casey’s face and  tried to keep this perfect kiss going for as long as he possibly could. Ezra turned bright red, but it wasn’t obvious in the dark room. Casey felt the heat of Ezra’s cheeks when he kissed them before moving back to his soft, sultry mouth. 

“Rest, babe. We have a long, hard job to do. And we’ll rest somme more. And I’ll make you feel so good tomorrow morning you’ll forget your name.” It was difficult for Ezra not to jump him right that very second. 

Ezra  napped, tucked up next to Casey, getting the best sleep he had gotten in awhile. When the alarm woke him up, he grabbed Casey and pulled him close for a few more breathtaking kisses before putting his jeans and his shoes back on. They had dinner at a little diner across the street and went to see Mrs. Jacobs

“ Is this the person you called? “ Mrs. Jacobs said as they walked into the door. “Yes this Ezra. He's a medium.” Casey smiled at her reassuringly. “He’s going to try to help you contact your husband.” Mrs. Jacobs nodded. 

Ezra sat down across from her at the little table and chairs. He was already feeling a strong presence. He hated the feeling of the presence,b ut he could tell this one didn’t have that malevolent intent that a lot of them had. 

“There’s a man.” He said, “I can’t see his face. But he wants you to know that he’s alright. He wants you to stop worrying about him. And he wanted to tell you that his favorite dessert was strawberry pie. So you know it’s him. He says he loves you, but also move on.”

Mrs. Jacobs was in tears. “Thank you thank you.” She said, 

“He’ll always be watching out for you.” Ezra held her hand and squeezed it. 

“We’re going to go cleanse your house now.” Casey said. Ezra got up and followed Casey out of the hotel room and back into his car.  

**“** You want me to drop you off at our hotel? Or do you wanna come help me cleanse this house? You may find you like it.” Casey shrugged. 

“I’ll go with you.” Ezra was apprehensive. He hated the feeling that he got when spirits were near. It made him feel light-headed and sick. He didn’t want to deal with this. But he knew that if he was going to get a grip on whatever his gift was, and gain some kind of control of it he knew he had to do something. He had to get involved with Casey and he had to face the ghosts. Casey kept the radio off as they rolled down the road into the suburbs. 

“You’re going to be alright.” Casey tried to be reassuring. “Nothing is going to happen to you, I’ll make sure it doesn't. Just go in, listen, tell me if you hear anything. I didn’t get much from the sound recordings. Which leads me to believe it’s not really the most intelligent hauntings. The meters lit up and stuff, but that was about it. Casey had a bunch of stuff ready to clear the house. He had bundles of sage, candles and books of incantations. 

He pulled up to the house. It seemed nice enough from the outside, and the thought made Ezra feel a little better. At least they weren’t going into some house that was definitely,very obviously haunted. But then again, things were not always what they seemed. People thought John Wayne Gacy was a perfectly admirable citizen, but he, like this house, held something foul.  Casey went into the house with his key and the supplies, Ezra followed close behind. 

“We need to get the board out of here.” He said  “I know where it is. We’re gonna take it home with us and my grandparents will know what to do with it. Ezra didn’t like the idea of Casey taking that thing with him and driving all the way back home with it in his car. Ezra just felt like it was going to cause some trouble. A breakdown, an accident, anything really. Murdered at at truck stop. Ezra's mind was going into weird places now. 

He looked around the inside of the house. All the cabinets were open, just as they had been when Casey went the first time. He looked around for anything else, but found that things were mostly the way he left them. He stopped paying attention for just a moment, lost in looking around for any further activity, when he heard a loud slam and an exclamation from Ezra. 

“What happened?” He asked, turning around. 

“It threw a chair at me.” Ezra said, from the ground where he had fallen over. “It thinks it’s a pro wrestler.” He got up slowly and dusted himself off. 

Casey lit the sage and began roaming the house with the smoking bundle of leaves.

He told the spirit that it was not welcome, that it had to leave. Ezra followed behind him opening doors and windows so the thing, whatever it was, would get the hell out of the house. Casey was banishing it, but Ezra felt worse and worse the longer they worked. The house became more and more active, the doors and windows were slamming shut and. Ezra was pretty sure that he heard screaming, though neither of them was making the noise. He heard what could only be described as a shrill shrieking in Latin. 

“You OK?” Casey asked 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Ezra was not fine, but he didn’t want to wimp out. His stomach was in painful knots and he was sure he was going to pass out. He tried to keep breathing, slow and deep, as Casey continued to cleanse the house 

The activity reached its peak with the entity shattering a window that it had just closed. The house went silent. Ezra threw up out the window. 

“You were not fine.” Casey said. 

“Yeah you’re right.” Ezra sighed, leaning against the wall. 

They went downstairs. Ezra closed up the cabinets in the kitchen and Casey set the chairs right. Casey had the board from the closet tucked under his arm. They drove back to the hotel, and called Mrs. Jacobs to tell her that the deed was done, and that she could come back to the house tomorrow. 

Casey drove them back to their hotel and ordered take-out. Ezra got into the shower. He came out, put his pajamas on and tucked himself into the king size bed. Casey came back later with food, he gently nudged Ezra awake 

“Hungry?” He asked. He had subs.Ezra smelled the toasted bread and immediately his stomach growled. He sat up and felt a massive headache.

Casey handed him a sandwich and sat down on the bed with him. 

“I don’t think I can do that again.” Ezra said, he ate slowly and carefully. 

“You won’t have to unless  you want to. How did you like talking to Mrs.Jacobs and giving her messages from her husband?” He asked. 

“That was the good part. I think I could do more of that.” He nodded slowly. 

“It wasn’t exhausting?” Casey looked at him carefully.

“Nah. I mean if I did it all day I bet I would be pretty tired. But I think I can pull that off.” Ezra shrugged. It kind of made him happy to know that he was helping someone receive some sort of closure after a heavy loss. It seemed like a good thing to do. 

“My grandma can help you. That’s sort of her specialty. You should talk to her when we get back home.” Casey finished his sandwich and tucked himself up under the covers. Ezra laid back down and curled up close to Casey. Tyler was the furthest thing from his mind.  He slept without dreaming.

Ezra woke up the next morning, feeling a little less emotionally drained. He rolled over and saw Casey laying next to him. Gorgeous, warm Casey. He rolled over so that Casey was spooning him and did what girls usually did to get their boyfriends to wake up and fuck them. He pushed his hips back against Casey’s groin. He ground against him as he stirred awake. 

Casey purred and kissed the back of Ezra’s neck. 

“You want me to make good on that payment now don’t you?” He asked

“I was promised two rounds and checkout time isn’t until noon.” A hand went up his shirt then down the front of his pants.  Ezra turned around to face Casey. They kissed as Casey rolled on top of Ezra. “I’ve never done this before...at least not with a guy.” Casey didn’t want to admit his inexperience, especially since he knew that that Ezra had at the very least been with Tyler. 

“Then let’s take it slow. We’ve got hours.” It was only eight AM. Casey rolled off of Ezra, and Ezra sat up Casey moved behind Ezra and kissed up and down his neck. Ezra's head rested on Casey’s shoulder, and Casey’s stubble was sending the most amazing shivers up his spine.  Ezra leaned in to every touch. He turned around and wrapped his legs around Casey. He kissed him slow and deep, taking Casey’s lower lip into his mouth and biting own softly.  He draped his arms around Casey’s neck and massaged his shoulders.  Casey let out a contented groan. He stripped Ezra down, taking in every inch of him. Ezra was a sight, He was mostly tattooed and Casey tried to look at all of them. He would eventually memorize every inch of this. 

Ezra got Casey’s shirt off, and was surprised to see a big chest piece. A lion in the middle of his chest. He had a few other miscellaneous tattoos around his body. Ezra was passionate. He was wild in bed, He blew Casey in a way that he had never been blown before, one hand stroking what he couldn’t take into his mouth and the other rubbing his prostate through his perineum. Ezra got the most intense satisfaction from the way Casey reacted. Casey pushed Ezra off. “Get on your back and spread your legs.” Ezra laid back, legs wide. 

“Lube?” Casey asked. 

“My bag.” Ezra laid back and tried not to giggle “There’s condoms too. Finger me first.” 

Casey put one finger in, doing it as slowly as he could. Ezra put a hand over his eyes and groaned. He watched Ezra’s every reaction, every buck of his hips. “Curl your finger upwards.” Casey curled his finger up and Ezra gasped. “Yeah! That spot, over and over.” He was laughing and groaning at the same time, making a noise that was probably the best thing that Casey had ever heard in bed. 

“I’m so ready…” Ezra groaned. 

“Yeah?” Casey tore open the condom packet. 

Casey was surprised at how easily this came to him. Fucking Ezra was so good. He was so incredibly tight, and the way he pushed back against Casey’s hips. “You’re fucking killing me….” He groaned, getting so close that he was about to explode Casey bit Ezra’s neck. Ezra couldn’t handle it. He came hard and fast. Casey followed moments later. 

“Holy fuck.” Ezra said as Casey pulled out slowly. 

They went a second round. But the checkout time was getting close. They got dressed and checked out of the hotel. After a long kiss goodbye, Ezra took off in his car. He disappeared down the highway, radio on, Casey not far behind him. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Canada!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you a Tumblr RP-Er? You can interact with Ezra, Casey and Tyler or if you just want to see what celebrities I've used for their faces since AO3 doesn't have a "Cast" feature like wattpad. You can find it all on my multi muse blog:  
> Lyingawxke.tumblr.com/muses
> 
> I'd like to thank everyone for reading and commenting. I'm hoping to have this story finished by November 30th, in accordance to the National Novel Writing Month deadline. If I don't finish in time, I will still finish within the first weeks of December.

 

Tyler called on Thanksgiving. Ezra didn’t celebrate thanksgiving, really. He watched the parade. He didn’t cook. Someone else always did. He would piggyback thanksgiving with friends or band members. There was always a seat at the table for him at somebody else’s house. He liked the idea of not having to clean up, and often getting a tupperware container of leftovers to take home with him. 

Ezra was stuffed, he had just come home and plopped down in his bed to sleep off his huge meal when he heard his phone ring. 

“Hello?” Ezra asked. 

“Hey….It’s me.” He immediately knew it was Tyler.

“What’s up? Happy Thanksgiving.” Ezra groaned. 

“It’s not Thanksgiving…” Tyler was confused “Oh wait, it is for you.” 

Ezra smiled. 

“Hey….so I got my thirty day chip today.” Tyler had done well. He was sober for a whole month. Ezra was impressed. “Check your texts”  Ezra looked at the messages on his phone and saw a picture of the chips in Tyler’s hand. 

Ezra looked at his text messages and saw a picture of Tyler holding his thirty-day sobriety chip. 

“I’m proud of you. My flight is still booked for December.”

“So...um...How are things?” He asked “Enough about me.”

“Good...Um I’ve been hanging out with Casey.” It felt shady saying that they had just been hanging out. On top of hanging around and playing video games, they were also going and cleansing houses and using Ezra’s gift to take messages from beyond. They were also sleeping together. Ezra sighed. 

“Yeah…Um...Casey and I have been sort of hanging out a lot.” 

“So you guys are a thing? Like you’re dating?” Tyler felt his heart start to break. 

“No. Like we had sex a couple times and sometimes we hold hands.”  He sighed 

“So where does that leave us” Tyler wanted a drink. 

“Me and Casey aren’t exclusive. I could very well come up in December, we can have wild, firey sex and get married for all I know.” Ezra stared up at the ceiling. 

“Casey’s hot You guys should have fun.” Tyler was so jealous. He was so very very green with envy that he was sure it was going to crush him any moment. 

“And you can come down here in January? Maybe thaw out.” 

“Yeah. I’ll book a flight.” 

Ezra still thought about how fun it would be for the three of them to be together. He was so into the thought of a threesome. And just the three of them in general. 

“You should come down for more than a month. Maybe just stay down here until touring starts? And we can go on tour together.” He wanted Casey and Tyler to know each other. He really did. They needed to bond, they needed to be happy together. He hoped Casey could get past the memory of their first night of knowing each other. The bar and the fight that Ezra and Tyler had were all in the past. He hoped that Tyler’s sobriety would prove his worth to Casey and get the bad taste out of Casey’s perfect mouth. 

“Yeah, maybe I can do that. I’ll probably let my place out for it. I usually do that. I put it on the Air bnb site. I really cleaned it up a lot while I’ve been getting sober I’ve actually become kind of a neat freak.” Tyler was smiling on the other end of the phone. 

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I’m so full I gotta sleep.” 

“Goodnight, Ezra.” He said softly. 

“Night Tyler.” He sighed and hung up. 

The rest of November passed without much incident. Tyler and Ezra texted back and forth, But Casey seemed a little off. 

“Can we talk about it?” Ezra asked.

“Yeah...I guess. I um..I know you and Tyler are sort of a set deal.” He said

“And I know that Tyler is doing better. So where does that leave us?” Ezra felt a little sick thinking about it. He knew that he would go right back to loving Tyler the minute they saw each other. Tyler seemed like he was doing well. He seemed like he at least almost had it together. Ezra sighed and tried not to think too hard about how he and Casey might have issues if Tyler were to come back into his life, but he had a very obvious solution that he doubted that Casey would be on board with. 

“As of right now...Tyler’s coming out here in January. He’s going to let out his house and stay down here for a few months. It’s a test, I guess, to see if he can stay sober for that long. But I think he’s ready. We’ll just get him set up in AA and make sure not to keep anything in the house. 

Casey nodded.”I can’t tell you to do anything. I don’t have that authority. I’m not your husband, I’m not your boyfriend. If anything, we’re friends with benefits. But if he lays a hand on you, if he fucks up in any way, I’m going to kick his ass all the way back to Canada.” 

“ Fair enough.” Ezra said. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about Casey being so protective of him, but he was getting on that plane to see Tyler no matter what Casey thought. 

The morning of Ezra’s flight arrived. He got up at five, dressed himself, ate a hasty breakfast and was out of his house by seven. He drove to the airport and went through security. He waited and waited, staring at his phone and trying to stave off the anxious feeling that he got at the thought of seeing Tyler again for the first time in almost two months. When his flight was called, he got up and stretched before hauling himself to the gate. 

Once he was seated, he accepted a small bottle of water from the flight attendant to hold him over for now. She also gave him a blanket and an eye mask. Ezra was absolutely exhausted. He hadn't slept well the night before. And he didn’t sleep well now either. He closed his eyes and put the mask over him after tucking the blanket around his shoulders. His sleep was light, and quite unrestful. Eventually he gave up and stared out of the plane window. The blanket was still tucked around him and the mask still around his eyes. He tried his best not to think about Casey, and how Casey didn’t seem to want him and Tyler to be together. 

His flight landed, and Tyler was there waiting for him. Tyler looked healthy. He didn’t look as tired as he had before. His eyes were alert, his skin seemed a little smoother. He looked his age. Ezra hugged him tightly. He was right, he immediately fell in love once more. 

“How was your flight?” Tyler asked, Ezra still tight in his arms. 

“Not bad. It was pretty quiet. No turbulence.” Ezra buried his face in Tyler’s shoulder. 

They got in Tyler’s car. It was clean. That was the first thing that Ezra noticed. It had been freshly washed, the inside was stunning. There were no cans littering the ground, no reciepts no food wrappers. Everything looked normal to Ezra. He was proud of Tyler. The biggest shock was the house, which was an hour away from the airport. Tyler played the radio softly as they drove. He wanted to talk more. 

“So how are things at your place?” he asked. 

“Warm. Very warm compared to this. It was seventy-six fahrenheit when I left.” 

“Shit that’s like summer here.” Tyler had gotten good at using both the metric and imperial systems, at least good enough to know that seventy-six degrees wasn’t cold. It might be a little less hot than usual to Ezra, but it certainly was not cold. 

“So tell me more about what you’ve been doing?” This kind of small talk pained Tyler a little bit, especially when it was with the man he thought was his best friend in the whold world. 

“I’ve been working with Casey. On his cases. We went and cleansed houses…” Ezra felt like the biggest idiot at that moment. “I talked to people...I got messages from their dead relatives. I think...I think I kind of like it” Ezra shrugged. He could tell that Tyler’s father had a message for him. But he knew it wasn’t his place to relay it. 

“That’s...wild?” Tyler didnt know what to say. He didnt fully trust that Casey wasn’t just making all of this up to get into Ezra’s pants. 

“What do you have planned for us?” Ezra asked. 

“Mom’s making us dinner at her place tomorrow. She’s really been itching to see you since I told her you were coming. I figured we could go home and warm you up. I’m sure you’re tired. It’s supposed to snow some more tomorrow. I know you still think the snow is still a novelty and not white powdery bullshit, so maybe we could go build a snowman or something.” 

“I’d love to build a snowman. I remembered my jacket from last time too. So I won’t freeze to death.” Ezra had bought himself a big comfy jacket for the Canadian winter when he was here last year. He was so ready to roll around in the snow . That was the best part about coming to Canada. Besides, of course, being with Tyler. 

They crunched into Tyler’s driveway and Ezra immediately got out of the car and pulled his suitcase from the back seat. Tyler unlocked the door and they went inside. Ezra remembered Tyler’s house having kind of a distinct, sort of gross smell. The smell that Ezra would have assumed was the kind of smell you would find in a frat house. But there was no such thing. This time, Tyler’s house smelled more like nothing than anything else. He looked around, and was surprised once again to find the place was clean as a whistle. 

“I’ve really changed for the better.” He said, looking Ezra deep in the eyes. 

“Yeah. I see that.” Ezra took off his coat and put it on a hook by the door. Without thinking, and certainly without any hesitation, Ezra wrapped his arms around Tyler and kissed him long and slow. Tyler placed a chilly hand on the side of Ezra’s face. “Oh…” He said softly “I wasn’t expecting that so soon.” Ezra smiled and stroked Tyler’s cheek, he tucked a piece of hair behind Tyler’s ear and gently pulled away. 

“Let’s get nice and warm.” He said

“How’s a bath sound?” Tyler was being incredibly forward, and maybe rushing a little. “A bath, with hot chocolate.” That had become one of Tyler’s little indulgences lately. 

“You mean putting hot chocolate in the bath or drinking hoto choclate in the bath?” He asked. 

“I got the christmas bath bombs.” Tyler loved bath bombs. The colors were weirdly soothing to him “One of which does smell like hot chocolate. But lets drink the hot chocolate and leave the bath water alone?”

Ezra knew exactly where Tyler’s bathroom was and he went to turn on the hot water. Tyler disappeared into the kitchen and started heating up milk for the hot chocolate. Ezra was absolutely impressed by Tyler’s new way of life. He was happy to see that everything was going well, but he wondered if it was all just on the surface. If Tyler was just barely holding it together under all of this. He found the basket of bath bombs and sniffed them all until he came across one that unmistakably smelled like chocolate. He tossed it into the water and watched it begin to fizz and roll around in the tub. He thought about stripping, but maybe not yet. He went to the closet next to the bathroom and got towels for the two of them. He set them down on the lid of the toilet and watched as the bath continued to fill up. He peeled off his shirt and tossed it gently to the floor. Then, came his shoes. He toed out of them and pulled off his extra-thick socks. Next came jeans. He shimmied out of them and then his boxers, leaving himself exposed in a somewhat chilly bathroom with a half-full bathtub. He turned around and saw Tyler, with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate in his hand. The big bath tub continued to gurgle and fill with colored, fizzy water. 

“Sorry.” He said, obviously staring. 

“Don’t be. I’m cold, hurry up.” Ezra stepped into the water and Tyler set the cups down on the edge of the tub before stripping down. Ezra watched him eagerly, taking in every little bit of new, exposed skin. Tyler had put on a little weight since they had last seen each other and it looked good on him. Ezra sat in the end of the tub and Tyler sat across from him. He assumed that eventually they would turn around and Ezra would rest his back against Tyler’s chest and enjoy the water until he got too sleepy. 

Tyler reached over and turned the faucet off when the tub was almost full. Ezra already felt better. The frost was leaving his fingers, toes and the tip of his nose and his legs felt less tense. He took a sip from the mug and warmed his insides. 

“I’ve been doing this a lot.” Tyler said “The whole hot bath and hot drink thing. Sometimes I worry about overheating. But then I’m usually fine. He sucked up a marshmallow from his cocoa. 

“I’ve never thought about it. But it’s probably because my idea of comfort is a cold drink in a cold swimming pool. There was nothing like chugging a big glass of  ice water and sitting in the pool when the temperature was over a hundred degrees. Or sweet tea. As far as he knew, Iced tea was not a popular thing up here. 

Tyler reached out and took Ezra’s hand. There was nothing luesty about this bath. Tyler had no plans of pulling Ezra close to him and nibbling on his neck. There was no reason for that just yet. He knew there was some healing to do. And he knew that Ezra, even though they had kissed earlier, might not be ready to head straight back to bed with him. 

Ezra kissed Tyler again, loving the sweet taste of hot chocolate on his warm lips. Tyler squeezed Ezra’s hand and smiled. “So…” He said softly “ I think we should get spaghetti for dinner. How does that sound?” Ezra would have killed for a huge bowl of spaghetti at that very moment. “Absolutely.” Tyler pulled Ezra close and softly raked his fingers through Ezra’s messy hair.  

“So tell me about AA.” Ezra said softly. 

“Well, I’ve been going twice a week. And it’s been pretty good. There’s usually a lot of people there. Everyone’s pretty nice. Some of the stories people have about hitting rock bottom are a lot like mine.  These people have lost a lot because of their drinking. They’ve lost jobs, families, lovers. All of it. And I realized what a dark path I was heading down. But I didn’t get sober for you. I knew that if I was going to do it, I was going to have to get sober for myself, you know? Incase you didn’t come back. I was going to have to get sober for my own sake. And I did. I’ve been sober for over a month. It just feels good to talk to people who have been there, you know?”  Tyler shrugged. He finished his hot cocoa and rinsed the mug out in the bath water. 

“Hold still.” He said, filling the mug with hot water and pouring it over Ezra’s head. Ezra let out a contented sigh as a shiver ran up his spine. Tyler grabbed the minty shampoo and began to massage it through Ezra’s wet hair. Tyler loved hair. He loved washing it, styling it, and coloring it. He always figured if he didn’t make it big as a musician, he’d have liked to become a barber or something. 

Ezra loved this. He loved the intimacy of the gesture. He felt so close to Tyler when Tyler washed his hair or rubbed his back, an act which he was praying came next after the hair washing. It was more of a loving gesture than anything else. It made him feel close to Tyler, it was, in its own right, an exercise in trust. He kept his eyes closed and let it all happen. He felt the distance that had come between them in the last few months melt away. It was as if they had never been apart and that things had never been bad between them. 

Tyler massaged Ezra’s scalp and felt satisfied when he could feel Ezra relaxing. Tyler rinsed the shampoo out with several more mugfuls of water. Once he was sure all of the shampoo was out of Ezra’s hair his hands started to work at the tension that Ezra carried in his shoulders and neck. Ezra’s eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and measured. He let out a little half-groan as Tyler worked out a big knot in his shoulder. “That’s good…” He said softly. Tyler kept pressing until the muscle relaxed. Tyler went a little lower and worked into his mid-back. His fingers treading carefully, but firmly. Once he was down to the lower back and hips, he stopped, letting his arms encircle Ezra’s waist as he leaned back against Tyler’s chest. Tyler allowed Ezra to remain like this for a few minutes, both of them enjoying this peaceful moment that was just them, wrapped in their own warm little bubble. But they had to get out of the tub eventually. 

“C’mon. Let's go to bed.” Tyler gently roused Ezra from his daze. Ezra slowly got out of the bathtub and dried himself off. He left Tyler’s room naked and went to his suitcase, where he found boxers and thick pajama pants. He threw on a tee shirt, and without thinking, he crawled into Tyler’s bed. The sheets were fresh and soft against his skin. Ezra was almost completely asleep when he felt weight on the other side of the bed, and Tyler’s warm arm wrapping around him. Ezra slept well, his body ready to make up for all of the sleep he had lost the previous night when he had been up worrying about what would happen when he got to Canada. His sleep was dreamless, he felt contented, enveloped in the softness of Tyler and his bed as well as the cool and comforting darkness of the room. 

Tyler awoke before Ezra the next day. He wanted to get up and make breakfast. This entire visit was supposed to be a way for Tyler to prove that he was responsible enough to be with Ezra, and being with Ezra was what Tyler wanted more than anything in the whole world. Though he was almost certain that Casey was going to get in the way of that at some point. He put on some slippers before going down to the kitchen and cracking several eggs. He made omelets and toast while a pot of coffee brewed. He fried up some bacon and plated everything just as Ezra came into the kitchen. 

“Holy shit.” Ezra laughed. “This is nice.” He kissed Tyler’s cheek and sat down to breakfast. Ezra ate slowly, savoring every bite. Tyler was a decent cook. He sipped his coffee. 

“So what fantastic adventures do you have planned for us today?” Ezra asked. 

“Other than dinner at my mom’s house, we can go outside and enjoy the snow…..I do have a meeting before we go to Mom’s though. You can come with me, if you want.” 

“Yeah.” Ezra said “I’d love to.” He smiled. Tyler smiled . 

“Wanna get dressed and go outside?”Tyler asked

“Absolutely.” Ezra went upstairs and bundled himself up and Tyler followed suit. Ezra raced out the door and launched himself into fresh snow.  Tyler erupted into a peal of laughter and followed Ezra down into the soft snow. Ezra rolled over on top of him and kissed him hard Ezra straddled him and tried to catch his breath. They laid on their backs and made snow angels until they scraped the ground beneath them. They looked up at the overcast sky and clasped their hands. Ezra stood up and started balling up snow into the bottom of a snowman.  

The snowman was big and fat, his head al most fell off but they managed to keep it stable. As Ezra was  attaching a stick-arm to the snowman he felt a big thump of a snowball hitting his back. 

“Fucker!” Ezra said, he grabed a fistfull of snow from the snowman and balled it up before tossing it at Tyler. It hit him in the arm as Tyler balled up more snow. He flung it at at Ezra and missed. 

“Loser!” Ezra bombarded him with snowballs.

“Yeah, but you love me!” Tyler flung one more snowball at Ezra and he fell backwards, crushing the snowman. Ezra did love him. He loved Tyler so deep down in his soul that it almost hurt him to dig down deep enough to put his hand on that kind of love. 

“You killed him!” Ezra said, laying in the remains of their snowman. 

“And you’re next!” Tyler gleefully fell on top of Ezra in the snow. Ezra let out a loud “Oof!” But wrapped his arms and legs around Tyler and gripped him like a vice. 

Up close, he noticed Tyler’s eyes, his freckles, the tinge of red from the cold. He pulled Tyler’s face against his and kissed him. 

“You’re right, I do love you.” he said, his voice almost less than a whisper. Tyler could smell the coffee on Ezra’s breath as it came out in a small, cold cloud. 

“I should hope so, because I love you too.” 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler proves that he's doing alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in forever! I promise I'm still plugging away at this. I just felt more inspired to write a part of the story that comes a bit later.

The went inside the house and had more coffee to warm up. Tyler washed the breakfast dishes and Ezra dried them. Ezra crawled back upstairs and Tyler followed, snuggling down into the heavy comforter with the person he wanted to be with most in the world. Casey was far from Ezra’s mind. Tyler turned on Netflix. They watched cooking shows until they fell asleep, with Ezra’s head resting comfortably on Tyler’s chest. He loved Tyler so much in that moment, that he couldn’t imagine ever loving anyone else.

Casey would become more of a looming concern as it got to be closer and closer to the day he and Tyler would go back to Florida. Casey was supposed to pick him up, but Ezra was certain he wouldn’t be expecting Tyler there with him. 

Tyler woke them up later, he nudged Ezra gently awake. Ezra clung to him and kissed his chin. “What’s up?” He asked, nuzzling Tyler. 

“We gotta leave soon to go to my meeting...And mom’s house.” 

“Hmm ok…” Ezra sat up slowly. He wanted nothing more than to lay in bed with Tyler for the rest of the night. But Ezra knew that the meeting was important to Tyler, and that Mrs.Burrell was without a doubt, an excellent cook. He got up and put on his shoes, standing up to kiss Tyler even more. He couldn’t stay away for very long. But he knew it would be inappropriate for them to be too sweet during the meeting. 

Tyler grabbed his wallet and keys as Ezra trailed behind him. They got in the car and Tyler pulled out of the driveaway. 

“So..” He asked softly, keeping the radio turned low. It was dark out, the stars were vibrant in the sky. “Are you like...My boyfriend now or something?” Ezra burst into a peal of delighted laughter. “Yes. I am one hundred percent your boyfriend now.” Ezra held the hand that wasn’t on the steering wheel as they drove down the empty streets. They pulled into a dark church parking lot. Tyler pulled Ezra close for one last kiss before they got out of the car. Tyler locked his car with the remote attached to his key and they went inside. Ezra took a seat in the circle and told Tracy that he was just visiting, and Tyler told her that Ezra coming to a meeting with him really meant a lot to him and would surely be helpful. He sat down in the circle and listened very attentively to the stories that all of the alcoholics told. Some of them sounded just like Tyler and some were nowhere near the same. Ezra knew anybody could become an alcoholic. And this meeting really drove the point home. Finally Tyler got up to share how his week went. 

“My name is Tyler and I am an alcoholic.” he said The room let out a quiet chorus of “Hi, Tyler”’s  

“I’ve been sober for over a month now.  Last night, my best friend arrived in town. After this meeting, we’re going to go have dinner with my mom. My life feels normal now. I feel like I have something good going.” He seemed genuinely happy. 

The meeting ended with the serenity prayer. Tyler and Ezra left the building and got back in the car. Tyler drove them a good ways out, to Liza’s house. Their hands linked up the whole way there. “You know I think I’m gonna want dessert after this dinner.” Ezra said, though Tyler couldn’t see his smirk in the dark inside of the car.

“I think Mom said there would be cookies.” Tyler turned a corner. 

“Oh wait...You meant sex.” Tyler laughed and squeezed Ezra’s thigh. 

“Yeah I did.” Ezra touched Tyler’s hand.

“We can do that.” Ezra’s mind was already wandering to the idea of doing it in the back of this very car, but Ezra knew how cramped and uncomfortable car sex was.

“So are we gonna tell your mom tonight?” Ezra asked 

“That we’re a thing now?” Tyler smiled 

“Yeah, that we’re a thing.” Ezra smiled.  Having Tyler was like an absolute dream come true. Today was the day he had been thinking about for years, and it had been absolutely one of the most perfect days that Ezra could have possibly imagined for them. The memory of that morning, of them laying in the snow together, was on that would stick close to his heart for the rest of his life. 

“I think we should. I know it’s a little fast. But still. I mean...I kinda can’t hide it. And she knows that I’ve liked you for a long time.” Tyler knew his mom would be looking for the signs between them. 

“Yeah I think we should just flat out tell her.” Ezra wanted to tell someone, even if it was just Tyler’s mom. Tyler used his key and opened the door. 

“Ma?” He asked 

“In the kitchen! Did you bring Ezra?” Liza asked. She hadn’t heard anything about Ezra’s visit. Tyler had been apprehensive about the whole thing, thinking that perhaps him and Ezra might be over for good. Liza worried about that. She didn't know what it would do to her son, to lose his best friend and the guy that he was obviously in love with all in one fell swoop.

“Yeah he’s here.”  

Tyler lead Ezra by the hand into the kitchen, where Liza was stirring away at a pot of thick potato soup. Ezra was freezing, and a bowl of soup so thick he could stand his spoon up in it was surely the thing that would thaw him out. 

Liza turned around and hugged Ezra, 

“It’s been forever! I forgot how handsome you are. And those green eyes!” She looked him over thoroughly. 

“So are you two dating yet? Tyler’s just been gushing about you since he got back.” 

Tyler hugged Ezra from behind. 

“Yep.! He’s all mine now!” Ezra turned beet red and he turned himself around to bury his face in Tyler’s shoulder. Ezra couldn’t wait to go home and have Tyler all to himself again. He was ready to go back to bed already. 

“Finally!” Liza clapped her hands “Seeing you two dance around it for so long was getting more than a little pathetic!” Ezra and Tyler laughed. 

“I’ve got soup, and nice bread.” She portioned out big bowls for both of them before getting one for herself and sitting down at the table. 

“Aren’t you just sou proud of Tyler?” She asked, Ezra knew exactly what she meant. She wanted to know if Ezra was proud of Tyler for getting sober.  

“I am.” Ezra nodded “I um… I sort of gave him an ultimatum when he left here.” 

“I heard.’ Liza smiled. Tyler held Ezra’s hand under the table. Ezra ate his soup and tried not to talk too much. He wasn’t really into the idea of talking about all of Tyler’s various problems over dinner in front of his own mother. 

“Did I ever pull out the baby pictures? Because if there was ever a time to pull out the baby pictures it’s definitely now!” Liza seemed like she was making an effort to embarrass Tyler but there was very little she could do to embarrass him. Tyler was an impenetrable fortress when it  came to feeling anything remotely similar to embarrassment. Ezra had seen Tyler do loads of things on thour that anyone else would have found utterly humiliating. He had given several interviews totally naked, and he had vomited in more than one extremely public place. Tyler had no shame whatsoever

When Liza busted out the baby albums, it was such a strange sight to Ezra. Small Tyler, with his hair sandy blond and not a single tattoo on his body. Tyler’s hair had been dyed black for as long as Ezra had known him. It seemed so strange that Tyler could grow up and look absolutely nothing like he did when he started out. . The only thing he could recognize as distinctly belonging to Tyler was his nose.  And his eyebrows, though Ezra was  pretty sure Tyler shaped them. But there was no shame in it, Ezra had had his waxed multiple times. Liza got up to put the leftovers away, leaving the two of them to pour over the rest of the family albums. 

There were some pictures of Tyler as a teenager Ezra scooted closer to Tyler once Liza vacated her spot. Tyler draped an arm around Ezra and moved the photo album so that it was sitting across both of their laps. 

“Oh my God, you were cute then too. Can you imagine if we had met in high school?” Ezra playfully nudged Tyler. “We would have met on the drumline.” They had found out early on, that they had both been in their high school's marching band, both of them on the drumline. 

“Do you think we would have….?” Ezra immediately knew what Tyler meant. 

“Would we have had an incredibly innocent high school romance, and skipped prom together because we wouldn’t have been allowed to go as a couple? Nah probably not. I didn't even know I liked guys until I met you.” 

“Yeah, but assuming that I’m the person that makes you realize that you’re bisexual as fuck, meeting me much earlier in life could have made you easily come to that conclusion a lot sooner. That would have then lead us to be kissing at some anti-prom thrown by a mutual friend in their basement.” Tyler felt like he had made an entirely valid point. 

“True.” Ezra said “You’re very full of yourself, but you’re not wrong. Any number of guys could have made me realize that guys are hot.” Ezra gave Tyler a look that said “You ain't shit.” Tyler laughed. 

“You would have gladly handed over your V-Card, you little shit. We’d have been posting song lyrics about each other on Myspace. We were both little Emo losers in high school.” 

“And look where we are now! Grown up emo losers!” Ezra couldn’t contain his laughter “God, my pants were so tight back then. They’re still pretty tight, but only when you’re around.” Ezra winked. 

“We’d have been texting each other on our Motorola Razrs and trying to make it look like we hadn’t just been sloppily making out when my mom came in the room.” Ezra almost wished this was what had actually happened. He remembered being kind of lonely as a teenager. He didn’t have a whole lot of friends, and the friends he did have were only friends because they were in band together, though his former marching band mates did become his actual band mates eventually. 

“It’s weird to think about, but if I hadn’t done band in high school, I would have probably never gotten into music. And I probably wouldn’t be here right now because we wouldn't know each other.” Ezra was lost in the moment of nostalgia and thought of how the world worked in such mysterious ways. 

“Then thank God for drum line.” Tyler hugged him tightly. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if this is a spoiler or a warning but this is a NSFW chapter. Wait until you're off the clock!

Liza came out a few minutes later with a plate of cookies and fresh cups of coffee. They stayed a little while longer, but eventually they had to go home. They both hugged Liza goodbye and thanked her for dinner before heading back to the car. The ride home was smooth and quiet, it was almost eleven at night, and Ezra was still bright and awake from the coffee. 

Tyler pulled up in the driveway. They got out of the car and Ezra hurried up to the door, eager to get out of the cold as soon as possible, even if he was only exposed to it for just a little while. Ezra had a hard time handling the cold after living in a place that very easily reached eighty degrees in the middle of december. Tyler hastily unlocked the door and let them inside as a fresh snowfall began to come down from the sky. 

“Still looking for something sweet?” He asked, pulling Ezra’s scarf off of his neck and hanging it on the rack next to the door. 

“Yeah I think I could use a little something to take the edge off. Those cookies were good, but I’m definitely still having a craving.” Ezra grabbed two handfuls of Tyler’s jacket and pulled him close for a long, slow kiss. 

“Good.” He never thought removing someone’s outerwear could be so positively sexy. Tyler peeled layers off of Ezra and let them drop to the floor before taking his own coat off and lead Ezra to the bedroom. He got Ezra’s shirt off and gently traced his hard nipples with his finger.Tyler wasn’t sure if Ezra’s rosy nipples were hard from the cold or from something hotter. Ezra laid back on the bed and got comfortable. Tyler laid down next to him and pulled him in for a long kiss. Ezra straddled Tyler and ground against him.  Ezra looked amazing, his hips rocking against Tyler. He wanted to keep this image in his memories forever. Ezra looked absolutely perfect, Tyler’s hand came up and lightly caressed the tattoos on Ezra’s stomach with his finger tips. His fingers went across the light dusting of hair that came up from underneath Ezra’s waistband. He undid his belt and pulled it off, before tossing it off to the floor. Tyler undid the button and fly of Ezra’s black jeans. His fingers popped the elastic of Ezra's grey boxers. Ezra let out a dirty laugh and Tyler couldn’t help but smile. Ezra got off of Tyler and kicked his shoes and socks off before shimmying out of the jeans and getting back into his position on top of Tyler. He kept his boxers on, just for the sake of leaving at least a little something to the imagination. Tyler’s  hands caressed his inner thighs and grabbed at his ass. Ezra was freezing. He needed to get under the blankets as soon as possible. So he got to work undressing Tyler, getting his jeans off and tossing them aside, along with his shirt. Ezra shimmied under the blankets and wrapped his arms around Tyler, who’s hand went immediately down Ezra’s boxers. His hand wrapped around Ezra’s half-hard cock and began stroking him to full hardness. Ezra closed his eyes and made the most gorgeous face that Tyler had seen him make that night . Ezra pulled his boxers off then he proceeded to remove Tyler’s tossing both pairs out from under the covers, where they landed on the floor next to the belt. 

“Fuck.” Ezra groaned between kisses when he felt Tyler take both of their cocks in his hand and rub them both together. Ezra was almost positive he could be fully satisfied by humping Tyler’s leg at that moment. 

“You like that?” Tyler asked. 

Ezra bit Tylers lip and let out a heady moan. 

“Yeah  do...but I’d much rather have your cock inside me. I want you to fuck me into this mattress.” 

“Yeah?” Tyler asked, rolling on top of Ezra. Ezra wrapped his legs around Tyler and Tyler pressed his cock between Ezra’s legs. 

“Don’t you dare tease me, Tyler Burrell.” He was laying totally prone, Tyler’s hands pinning him down to the mattress. 

Tyler let out a devilish smirk and grabbed the bottle of lube and a condom. Ezra rolled over and Tyler pressed a finger inside him. Ezra groaned as it went inside of him. The first few moments of being penetrated were always a little strange, but soon he got used to it, and even started to melt. Tyler fingered Ezra, opening him slowly, savoring every loud groan that came from him. Tyler loved having this whole house to himself. The two of them could very easily be as loud as the possibly could. 

“I wanna get on top.” Ezra said. 

Tyler laid down on his back and Ezra straddled him, slowly taking Tyler’s cock inside him. He rocked his hips slowly, needing just a little bit of time to adjust. 

“I wanna top you next round.” Ezra said, out of nowhere. 

“You what?” Tyler was shocked. 

“I wanna top you.” Ezra was just dirty talking at this point, but he really did want to mount Tyler and fuck him senseless. It seemed like an interesting change of pace. He wanted to play with the dominance dynamics in their relationship. He wanted to make Tyler’s legs shake the way his did after a good, hard fucking. 

Tyler was a little apprehensive. He had never bottomed in his life, and he hadn’t planned on starting anytime soon, but he was pretty curious about just how good it had to feel to leave Ezra a complete mess afterwards. 

“Alright.” Tyler agreed as Ezra kept bouncing steadily on his cock. 

“Ugh, fuck I can’t….” Ezra groaned, he was tensing up. Tyler thrusted his hips up to meet Ezra’s pace. As fun as this was, Tyler had to see it from the other side. Ezra came and Tyler followed soon after. The two of them were an absolute wreck. Ezra gathered his strength and slid off of Tyler, collapsing next to him before rolling over onto his stomach and letting out a low groan into the pillow. Tyler got up to clean up and while he was up, he got a good view of Ezra’s ass. He was stretched out a little from taking Tyler, and still relaxed.  Tyler got back into bed and pulled Ezra close to him. Ezra nuzzled his chest and wrapped his arm around Tyler’s middle. 

“You’re gonna get totally fucking wrecked.” He said. 

“Oh? What are you, some expert top now?” 

“Oh yeah. Absolutely. I know it all I’ll have you screaming.” Ezra winked. They both laughed. Ezra let Tyler catch his breath. Ezra liked when Tyler melted like this. H e loved seeing Tyler’s closed yes, his long lashes resting gently against his face. He could kiss those full lips forever. Tyler rested for a few more moments, then he looked at Ezra with a playfulness in his eyes. 

“Alright, gimmie the ride of my  life.” he said. 

Ezra got on top of him and kissed him roughly. Tyler was loving this change. He kissed back, biting fervently, but he was surprised when he was pinned down to the bed. 

“You really are getting wild. You’re gonna make good on this promise, arent you?” 

“You bet your ass I am.” Ezra said, stroking Tyler’s chest. 

They fooled around a little while longer, Ezra talking dirty the whole time. Tyler was so worked up on his voice alone. The thoughts he was having were making him so painfully hot that his mind began to get a little fuzzy after a while. But what drew Tyler out of his pleasured haze was Ezra asking if he was ready. He wasn’t sure if he could possibly be absolutely ready, but he was definitely ready to satisfy a long-held curiosity. The only apprehension he had came from not knowing exactly how this was going to feel. He knew he could back out at any moment if he needed to, and Ezra wouldn’t hesitate to stop for him or slow down. 

“Yeah.” He nodded. 

Ezra coated a finger in lube and pressed it carefully against Tyler’s opening. Tyler squirmed a little as the finger slowly went in, the first knuckle, then the second. It was such a weird feeling, and he had never quite imagined what all this must have felt like for Ezra. Simply put, he had absolutely no clue just how sensitive his ass was. 

“You good?” Ezra asked after Tyler was quiet for a moment too long. 

“Yeah...It feels weird. Like super weird. But I kinda like it?” Tyler was trying his best not to laugh. 

Ezra moved his finger slowly in and out. 

“Do you mean to tell me that you, Tyler Burrell, have never had anything, not even your own finger, in your ass?” Ezra wasn’t trying to mock him, he was genuinely surprised. 

“You are correct.” Tyler placed a hand over his eyes and laughed, but his laugh was interrupted with an “Oh fuck!” when the pad of Ezra’s finger caressed his prostate. Ezra let out a wicked little laugh. “Describe how that feels to me.” He said, doing it again. 

“Um…” Tyler knew how it felt he just couldn’t find the words yet. “God , I can feel that through my whole pelvis. All the way to the tip of my dick. Christ ! No wonder you like getting fucked so much.” Ezra kept fingering Tyler a little longer, until Tyler begged Ezra to stop because he felt like he was literally going to explode. But he was not done yet. Not by any means. He was going to let Ezra fuck him. But he just needed a moment to come back from the brink.  Ezra crept up the bed and kissed him softly, spreading kisses across his neck and chest until Tyler said he was ready. 

Ezra rolled on a condom and coated his cock in lube before pressing himself against Tyler’s opening. “Fuck…” Ezra groaned, pushing the head inside. Tyler whined as he slowly but surely took the whole entire thing inside of him. Tyler was so fucking tight. It took everything Ezra had to stop himself from coming the moment he was fully inside Tyler. He felt long legs wrap around him. Tyler adjusted his hips and told Ezra he could start moving. Ezra moved slowly at first, trying to keep some control of himself as he thrusted. Ezra made sure he wasn’t hurting Tyler before he picked up the pace a little. 

Tyler didn’t last long at all after Ezra’s cock started hitting his sweet spot over and over. Ezra was almost certain he had never seen anything sexier than Tyler coming in big, hot spurts between them while riding out what was probably one of the most intense orgasms of his life. Tyler grabbed Ezra’s face and gave him a long, heavy kiss that was supposed to be a big “Thank you” before Ezra pulled out slowly and carefully. . 

They cleaned up, slowly and sleepily before falling into a heavy sleep. 

 

\---------------------------------------------------

Tyler snuck out before Ezra could wake up. He left a note on the kitchen counter next to a still-hot pot of coffee. “Out running an important errand. Back later” Ezra looked at the note and assumed that whatever Tyler was doing, he didn’t intend for Ezra to be a part of it. That was fine with him. His first guess was that Tyler was out buying him a Christmas present. He had a little something for Tyler in his suitcase as well. Ezra had thought long and hard about what to get Tyler for Christmas, or if he should get him anything at all. But he had settled on matching ugly sweaters for both of them in hopes that their friendship would be restored to “Matching Outfit” levels during his visit. It had been restored to more than matching outfits, of course, and for that Ezra was thankful. The other thing that he had gotten Tyler, the thing that was supposed to carry deep sentiment, but he was sure it just seemed like a practical gift, was a thick plaid jacket. Red and Black plaid always made Ezra think of Tyler. And for some reason the thought of Tyler staying warm in a jacket that Ezra had gotten him made his heart flutter a little. To him, it almost seemed like Tyler would be wrapped in a hug. He tried not to think about how painfully cheesy that was as he put the sheets into the washing machine. 

Ezra spent most of the day snuggled up on Tyler’s sofa, waiting for him to come home. At one point, he dozed off, laptop open Netflix playing, a mountain of soft blankets surrounding him.  While Ezra napped, Tyler snuck in with a shopping bag in his hand. He peered into the living room and saw Ezra sleeping. He breathed a sigh of relief and scurred to the bedroom where he immediately set the bag down on the bed as well as a roll of wrapping paper and began to get to work.

Tyler wasn’t good at wrapping by any means, but he was certainly going to put his best effort forward. The end result was a little ugly, and a little wrinkled, but it was certainly better than nothing. He stashed the present in his closet and went to wake Ezra. 

Tyler softly nudged Ezra until he woke, kneeling on the floor next to the sofa. 

“Oh, you're back!” he said softly, wrapping his arms around Tyler and nuzzling his chest. 

“Where’d you go?” Ezra’s voice was muffled. 

“I was out christmas shopping, duh.” Tyler laughed and kissed Ezra’s forehead.  Tyler climbed into Ezra’s blanket nest and settled in for a well deserved cuddle before both of their stomachs started to growl. They both got up and went to the kitchen to make thick, heavy sandwiches with anything they could find in the fridge, before going back to the nest of blankets. 

“Let’s go out.” Tyler said, it was almost three-thirty. 

“And do what?” Ezra looked up at him from his spot on Tyler’s chest. 

“Hmmm” Tyler was pretending to think, but he had a plan the whole time. 

“Let’s go to the movies. And then go get a Christmas tree. We can get takeout on the way back?” Ezra liked the sound of that. It sounded like an absolutely perfect evening. He would swear that Tyler was so much more fun now that he was sober. Not that partying and having wild nights wasn’t fun, it just wasn’t something that Ezra could really do anymore. He couldn’t even smell tequila without almost dying. 

Tyler pulled out his phone and looked up movie times. “There’s a new Thor movie out.” He said “The next showing is at four thirty.” Ezra sat up “Yeah, let me just put some pants on.”  Ezra had pants on, but they were pajama pants. And he was still barefoot. Ezra got up and got dressed. He brushed his teeth and put on his shoes while Tyler sat on the living room sofa and browsed his social media. Ezra came back in a few minutes and Tyler grabbed his keys. 

They got in the car and Tyler drove carefully through the snowy streets. 

“So what’d you get me for Christmas?” Ezra asked with a playful wink. 

“Um...Why would I tell you?” Tyler responded, equally playfully. 

“I’m so excited for this Christmas tree.” Ezra felt like a kid in a candy store. He loved decorating for Christmas. 

“Fuck, you know what I just realized?” Tyler said. 

“That you love me?” Ezra laughed 

“Well yeah there’s that, and I don’t have any of the shit that you need for a Christmas tree.” Tyler had always gone to his mom’s house for Christmas. The tree was always already just there, decorated and ready to go. 

“I guess that means we have to go to the store.” Ezra was weirdly excited about doing benign little things like running errands to the supermarket or the home improvement store with Tyler. Something about doing things with Tyler that were just normal, day to day things that they didn’t do while on tour or while Tyler was sober, seemed incredibly novel to Ezra. 

“I guess we do.” Tyler didn’t have anything to strap the tree to the roof of his car with, either. Hopefully the people at the tree lot would help them with it, because Tyler had absolutely no idea what he was doing, and he was pretty sure that Ezra didn’t know either. 

They arrived at the movie theatre and got their tickets. Ezra bought popcorn for them. Every time Ezra bought something with cash in Canada He remembered the first time he had handled Canadian money, and how he hadn’t believed Tyler when Tyler told him to smell the money because it smelled like maple syrup. It did have a slight smell to it, but when Ezra googled it he found out that no, Canadian money was not purposefully meant to smell that way. But many people thought it was, and Ezra couldn’t deny that there was something there. 

Tyler found them seats up in the middle of a back row. There was hardly anyone in the theatre yet, so Tyler stole a few quick kisses in the darkness before the movie started. Ezra leaned over and rested his head on Tyler’s shoulder. It felt nice, to just be here with Ezra. Tyler didn’t pay too much attention to the movie. He knew what was going on, but he wasn’t totally engrossed. He was too busy thinking. Tyler’s thoughts were drifting off into the future. How were they going to tell their fans? Should they make a video? They had to tell the bands, too. They couldn't keep living in the happy little bubble that they were living in now. Christmas and New Year would come and go. Tyler would have to start writing songs with his bandmates for the new album. That was actually what he was supposed to be doing tomorrow knew he didn't have to tell them tomorrow, about him and Ezra, but he was certain that he needed to tell them as soon as possible. Tyler felt like this would be a big secret to keep from people that he spent most of his life around. 

He slipped an arm around Ezra and kept thinking, the wheels in his mind were turning and looking even further into the future. Was this a relationship that was going to exist to solve a few years worth of sexual tension, then slowly dissolve? Tyler didn’t think so. They had a firm basis in friendship. As far as Tyler knew that was one of the things a relationship needed to survive. Tyler had a lot of figuring out to do. He didn’t know if he would someday want to get married at all, let alone to Ezra. How would they work out living in separate countries? Eventually someone would have to move, wouldn’t they?  What if Ezra suddenly decided he wanted a kid? He could handle them getting a puppy or something, but raising a human was entirely out of the question for Tyler. At this point in time, sometimes it was hard for him to even take care of himself, let alone somebody else. Tyler was doing his best not to psych himself out, but he had a lot of what seemed like legitimate concerns. 

The credits rolled, and of course they stayed until after the credits because it was a Marvel Movie, and they weren’t stupid. They chatted a little about the movie as they walked outside, Tyler holding on to Ezra’s hand. 

Instead of takeout, they walked across the movie theatre parking lot to Chili’s. They were seated and they both ordered sodas. “So we have a lot to talk about…” Tyler said. 

“Do we?” Ezra tried not to feel to worried. 

“Yeah...I mean just stuff.” Tyler was suddenly growing nervous. 

“What kind of stuff?” Ezra asked, looking suspicious over his menu. 

“Relationship stuff.” Tyler was blushing a little and his palms were sweaty. 

“Oh?” Ezra felt a pit form in his stomach. 

“Well...first of all. We’re supposed to do a collab on my band's next album.” Tyler said . “And I was wondering when we should tell everyone.” Ezra knew that the little happy bubble they lived in would burst in January, and it would be back to work, back to Florida and back to Casey. He couldn’t think too hard about Casey at that moment. He was pushing thoughts of Casey further and further away, but he still had some sort of feelings. They were just different from his feelings for Tyler. Maybe because they were newer, or maybe because they were a little less strong in the first place. Either way, there was still something there. But if he did have to choose, he would always choose Tyler, without a doubt.

“And we have adoring fans that have been writing fanfiction about us stripping down and fucking even dirtier than we actually do.” Ezra added. Ezra had read the fanfiction. But he hadn’t shown it to Tyler yet. Some of it was bad, definitely. But some of it got him so hot that he couldn’t take it. He had spent more than one night reading it on his Ipad, jerking himself off to someone writing about Tyler jerking him off. And of course, there were drawings. Some were cartoony and cute, but others looked almost like photos. Ezra had spent a lot of time looking at the “Ezler” Tag on Tumblr while pining away. 

“Whoa whoa what?” Apparently Tyler hadn't gone looking through the fanfiction yet. 

“Yeah… There’s fanfiction.” Ezra should have written some. That would have been funny. 

“Is it good? I mean can you get off to it?” Serious matters had been forgotten. 

“Some of its good. Some of the drawings are hot. “ Ezra pulled out his phone and began looking through Tumblr. 

He found a particularly realistic sketch of Tyler mounting him and discreetly passed the phone across the table for Tyler to look at.

“Holy….Fucking...shit.” Tyler said, looking amazed at the picture in front of him “It looks like they were staring through our bedroom window.It kinda makes me horny, it kinda creeps me out. “ He slid Ezra’s phone back to him and Ezra quickly made the picture go away after saving it to his camera roll for later. 

“So….How are we gonna tell all these fangirls that their ship is canon?” Ezra laughed. 

“Sexy pics on snapchat? An actual sextape? Making out on stage a la Gerard Way and Bert McCracken and every other mid 2000’s emo guy?” Tyler was sure he was being helpful. 

“Maybe a cute picture in front of the christmas tree and an official announcement?” Ezra asked “Maybe a video?” He was sure a lot of people would think that it was some kind of prank. They had to tell their bandmates first, and Ezra had to call his mom. 

The waiter came and took their orders. Then Tyler got back on the serious track. 

“I hate to go this road, because we’ve only been officially together a few days, but we never had this conversation as friends and now that we’re a couple, we need to have it sometime.” 

“What conversation is that?” Ezra asked. 

“The marriage and kids one?” Tyler tried to play it cool. 

“Oh?” Ezra was intrigued. 

“So?” Tyler asked 

“So...I've given it a lot of thought, actually.” Ezra shrugged. He wanted to be prepared.

“And?” Tyler didn’t know what else to say. 

“Well” Ezra began “ I want to get married someday. I dunno I just sort of do. I don’t want kids. I feel like I can’t take care of myself let a lone a kid. And we’re both just starting to really get going on our careers. If we had a kid we’d have to hire a full time nanny. And I feel like leaving my kid with a full time nanny would be parent cheating, you know? LIke we were really taking the easy way out. If I’m gonna have a kid I want to be dedicated to it. But I don’t want a kid. I don’t even think I want a pet. We’re gone so much, we’d have to get a dog that’s really good with travelling or something. But I’d hate to get a dog and have to leave it at home while I’m gone touring or whatever. 

“Good point.” Tyler was absolutely relieved that Ezra wasn’t about to go looking to adopt anytime soon...or ever. 

“What about you? Are you just itching to be a daddy?” Ezra laughed.

“The only person I ever want to call me Daddy is you, and only during sex.” Tyler was dead serious. “I don’t like kids.”

“Neither do I really. At least not the little ones. They’re sticky. Now Teenagers are alright. I dunno, I still feel like a teeanger sometimes. Then I get a big pile of bills in the mail and suddenly I remember that I’m twenty six and have to pay for everything myself. “ Ezra rolled his eyes at the thought of paying bills. But at least automatic bill pay was a blessing of the twenty-first century, so he never had to actually remember to pay anything, otherwise all of his utilities would have been shut off years ago. 

“I’m glad we’re on the same page about all this.” Tyler said, reaching across the table to take Ezra’s hand. “I mean, I know we just started dating but I don’t want to get into this if our long-term plans don’t line up. It would just hurt more in the end if that happened.” That was probably the most sensible thing that Tyler had ever said in his entire life, and Ezra was absolutely, without a doubt, solidly impressed. He squeezed Tyler’s hand. 

“Yeah, I’m glad we’re on the same page, too.” 


	10. Chapter 10

They ate their dinner and got the check. Then they walked back to the car, Ezra clinging tightly to Tyler for warmth. “Fuck.” He said, feeling the first blast of heat from the car’s heater. Tyler drove them to the closest Home Improvement store. A place which Tyler had never once set foot in. In the parking lot there was a white tent filled with Christmas trees.  They went into the tent and it smelled just like Christmas. They looked around the tent, pulling trees so that they stood completely upright. They inspected each one carefully for width and fullness, looking closely for any “Bald spots” On the tree. They finally  picked one that was wide and full and everything they had hoped for. The man gave Tyler a ticket and the pair went inside. 

Ezra grabbed a cart. Inside the store there were displays of christmas lights and boxes of ornaments everywhere. “We need lights for it.” Tyler said, picking up two boxes of colored strands. Ezra saw big variety boxes of ornaments. They picked up some of those. But in a bin of individual ornaments, Ezra spotted a gem. It was a little frame ornament that said “Our First Christmas” He immediately tossed it in the cart. It was just big enough for a photo from the polaroid camera that he and Tyler had played with once at Tyler’s house a few summers ago. They picked up a tree stand and a tree skirt too.  

“I still have plenty of film for that.”Tyler said. “We should take a picture once we’re done decorating the tree. “We absolutely should.” Ezra held Tyler’s hand as they went to pay for the ornaments and the tree. They split the cost between them and went outside to collect their tree. The man helped attach the tree to the top of Tyler’s car and told them to drive carefully on their way home. 

When Tyler precariously pulled into the driveway, they immediately took the tree off of the roof of the car. Ezra propped open the door and the two of them hauled the big tree inside. They set it up on the tree stand and cut the white plastic netting off from the outside of the tree. 

“Bed?” Tyler asked. 

“Absolutely.” Ezra replied. It was only ten o’clock, but Ezra was ready to fall asleep in a nice, warm bed. By the time they woke up the next morning, the branches would have fallen and the tree would be ready for decorating. 

They woke up early and had breakfast in the kitchen. It was Ezra who realized that all of the ornaments and other accessories were still in the car. He grabbed Tyler’s keys and went to get them out. They got dressed and were ready to get to work on their masterpiece. Tyler got up on a stepstool to reach the top of the tree. They carefully wound lights around the tree, handing the string of lights off to each other with each turn around the trunk. They plugged in the lights and were quite impressed. Tyler turned on Christmas music while Ezra opened the ornament boxes. They hung each ornament with care, placing them precariously on every branch. The pair stood back and admired their work, feeling completely satisfied with themselves. 

Tyler went to his room and brought back a wrapped package, which he placed underneath the tree. Ezra saw the roll of wrapping paper nearby and disappeared into the bedroom to box and wrap the jacket while Tyler made coffee. Ezra placed the box underneath the tree, just like Tyler had done a few minutes before. Both boxes were not wrapped perfectly, but it didn’t matter to either of them. 

“House lights tomorrow?” Tyler asked. They still had a ton of lights leftover. 

“Absolutely.” Ezra replied, sipping his coffee and resting his head on Tyler’s shoulder. 

The following afternoon, Tyler and Ezra meticulously set up their Christmas lights. They draped them over the bushes outside and along the edge of the roof. When the sun went down, they proudly gazed upon their creation. Tyler wrapped his arm around Ezra and kissed him. This was going to be the best Christmas in a long time, Tyler could already tell. 

“So...Wanna go inside and start writing lyrics?” Tyler asked. They needed to get to work on their lyrics of their duet was going to be ready by the end of January and make it on to Tyler’s band’s new album. 

They tried to write lyrics, but the ended up playing with the drum kit in Tyler’s spare bedroom. The both of them trying to relive their drumline days. 

“I have an idea…” Ezra said 

“For what?” Tyler asked, twirling drumsticks in his deft fingers. 

“How we’re going to tell our adoring fans that we’re a couple.” 

“What’s your idea?” Tyler cracked his knuckles as he set the drumstick down. 

“I say we cover some super sappy song. Some kind of disney shit.” Ezra was entirely serious but he wanted to play it off like he was kidding. 

“Ok. Man they’ll explode.” Tyler laughed 

“Should we just make it facebook official...so everyone who needs to know knows? I dunno  I just don’t feel like explaining. Because I don’t really wanna hear what anyone has to say about it, you know? I just feel like everyone is gonna have to suck it up if they don’t like it.” 

Tyler pulled out his phone and immediately made their relationship facebook Official. 

His profile read “Tyler Burrell is in a relationship with Ezra Young” And Ezra’s read the same thing. The notifications rolled in as they began to prepare their cover of the sappiest song that they could find. They of course, settled on “Can’t help falling in love” By Elvis, though they fully intended to make it sound much more like their own style of music. A good deal faster and quite a bit heavier. They rehearsed all morning and recorded it the next day in one take. At the end they kissed. It wasn’t just a little peck either. Ezra leaned over the drum kit and planted a good, believable kiss on Tyler’s lips.  They uploaded the video to all of their social media and soon the notifications were pouring in and the gossip sites were buzzing, even though tyler and Ezra were pretty minor celebrities. 

\---------------------------------------------------.

Christmas morning arrived and Ezra woke up from a deep sleep way after the sun had risen. Christmas as an adult was way different than Christmas as a kid, especially if you didn’t have any kids of your own. Tyler trudged down the stairs behind him. They sat down on the floor in front of the christmas tree, in their holiday pajamas. Tyler opened his gift first. He immediately put the jacket on and declared that he absolutely loved it. Ezra smiled and kissed him before opening his gift. Inside a wrapped box was a bright red thong. 

Ezra burst out into laughter so hard that he couldn’t even speak. 

“Oh my god, really?” He gasped “You know this thing is gonna get lost in my ass and never be found, right?” Ezra couldn’t contain himself and now Tyler was giggling too. 

“Alright, but your real present…” He pulled it out of his pajama pocket. Inside the little box was a gold bracelet. Ezra was surprised by it. It could go on his wrist with the multitude of hair ties and other miscellaneous bracelets he had . He looked at the engraving on the little gold plate. It had a little carving of hearts and skulls. Ezra would have never picked something like that out for himself, but it was a lovely, thoughtful gift from Tyler that Ezra would cherish forever. Ezra squeezed Tyler tightly. They got up and went to make a heavy breakfast that would sit like rocks in their stomachs while they laid on the couch and watched Christmas movies in their pajamas all day. Ezra loved every minute of it. They never watched sappy Christmas movies. Their list was a full list of the funny ones. Elf, Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and of course, A Christmas Story. They bundled themselves up on the sofa, stopping for hot chocolate halfway through their movie marathon. 

Later, though, they had to get dressed to go to Tyler’s mom’s house for a big Christmas dinner. Ezra bundled himself up even more than the poor kid in the snowsuit from A Christmas Story and followed Tyler to the car. When they got to Liza’s house, the place was swarming with Tyler’s family. 

“Don’t answer my Uncle Ron when he asks us how we have sex ok?” Tyler said as they got out of the car. “He’s probably drunk already, so I’m sure he can come up with something gross to say to one or both of us.” tyler rolled his eyes “I’m so glad I don’t drink anymore. It’s really obvious to me how embarrassing being drunk at family gatherings is. Uncle Ron used to be my best friend at family parties.” Tyler lead them inside where they were immediately greeted by Liza, who was flanked by a few of Tyler’s aunts, who all gathered around to “Have a look at him” 

“We heard all about you and Ezra.” one said. He was profusely welcomed into the family throughout the whole night. 

“I heard you quit drinking!” Uncle Ron slurred. 

“Yep...I might suggest you do the same thing.” Tyler was trying not to cause trouble, but he was definitely also trying to avoid Uncle Ron at all costs. 

“Eh I might when my wife dies! Then I’ll be a free man! And I won’t have any reason to drink!” 

“Straight people are so weird.” Ezra said to Tyler as they found a quiet place to sit down with their plates that were piled high. “It’s wild, I don’t know why it’s funny for straight people to talk about how much they hate their spouses and expect everyone to think that kind of talk is funny. There’s nothing funny about hating the person you at one point promised to love forever.” He stuffed a piece of ham into his mouth. 

“Holy shit this is good.” He said, leaning against the back of the couch. Ezra was sure to come to Tyler’s family functions hungry. He was always well received and well fed at the Burrell Household. 

Tyler’s aunt Sara, the wife that Uncle Ron so dearly hated, sat down across from them, her round bottom taking up a good portion of the coffee table. 

“So will there be any wedding bells in your future?” She asked, her big eyes eager for information. 

“Not right now. We’ve only been dating a few weeks.” Ezra said

“That and there’s the big deal of Ezra living in Florida.” Tyler raised his eyebrows. 

“Well that shouldn’t be a problem, Tyler, didn't you get dual citizenship last year? To make it easier for your work?” 

“I did. And it’s good to not have to worry about my visa expiring and everything like that. Of course, if I didn’t have that I might be more eager to get Ezra down the aisle. We could be like those couples on ninety day fiance. “ Tyler elbowed Ezra and laughed.

“Oh, I love that show!!” Aunt Sara said. She began to describe the lives of her favorite couples. 

In the midst of her speech, there was a loud crash. 

Ezra and Tyler both turned around to see what was going on. 

“Oh my god!” Aunt Sara shot up from her seat and rushed over to Uncle Ron who was laying on the floor clutching his chest. “Somebody call an ambulance! He’s having a heart attack!!” Phones whipped out and someone finally got a hold of 911. They all helped to clear way for the ambulance, which took seemingly forever to arrive. People went out to move their cars down the street before the ambulance could get there. Uncle Ron was unconscious. They put him on the stretcher and Aunt Sara followed him out to the ambulance. 

“Holy shit.” Tyler said as they drove away into the distance. 

“I think the party’s over.” Ezra said. People were filing out of the house, presumably to go to their cars and either join Sara at the hospital or go back to their own homes. Tyler went back inside. His mom was in the kitchen packing up food. 

“I’m going to pack up some food for you boys to take home, then I guess I’m going to head to the hospital.” She shrugged. 

“You ok?” Tyler asked 

“Yeah, I’m fine. 

“Mom….” Tyler said. 

“Yeah?” She looked at him in a way that sort of pleaded him to not go any further. 

“You said you stopped. You said it was over . It’s over, right?” He asked.  

“Nope. I never ended things with your uncle. I feel so bad, Sara is my closest sister. But Sara is just the absolute worst! I just...I just feel horrible but I couldn’t stop. We knew they couldn’t get divorced, it would crush her. And it was so hard to stop after your dad died.” 

“Mom...just go ahead and go...we’ll finish packing up.” She nodded and grabbed her keys. 

“What was that?” Ezra asked as he heard the door shut. 

“I guess I should try to explain.” Tyler popped a lid on a tupperware container “Though I guess it’s not some huge, dramatic thing, you know. But as you can tell, my aunt Sara is a bit...much. And my mom is kind of the opposite. So my mom started having an affair with uncle Ron while my dad was still alive because my dad was gone most of the time for work. And then when my dad died, she felt like she had nothing holding her back, so she started seeing Ron more and more. It’s been going on for about fifteen years and nobody’s ever told Sara because I guess everyone is afraid that she’ll snap or something.” Tyler shrugged. 

Ezra loved a good bit of family gossip, but this whole thing just sounded sad now. They took what food they wanted and dropped it off at the house before heading to the hospital. When they got there, they found everyone looking mournful. Tyler’s mother was trying to hold back her own emotions as she attempted to comfort her bawling sister. 

“He was DOA.” A cousin said, ushering them into the mournful throng that had gathered around Sara and Liza. Ezra and Tyler said nothing. The only sound heard in the little waiting room was the sound of Sara sobbing. 

“The last thing he said to me was I’m sorry.” She said, though big sniffs. Maybe Ron was apologizing for hurting her, or maybe it was the beginning of him saying “I’m sorry you didn’t die first.” Ezra figured it might have been the later. 

The relatives began to slowly trickle out of the hospital and Ezra followed Tyler back to the car. 

Once in the silent sanctity of their own vehicle Tyler sighed. 

“Man, I fucking hated him.” He said “I fucking hated him if I wasn’t as drunk as he was.” They drove back to the house, Ezra staying quiet as they crunched over the snow covered roads. Ezra sighed and got out of the car. 

“Shower?” Tyler asked. 

“With you?” Ezra raised his eyebrows. 

“I think so. Seems a little inappropriate since someone just died, but hey, people die all the time. Tyler shrugged and opened the door. He peeled off his outerwear and stretched before heading to the bathroom. Ezra followed suit. Once they got into the bathroom Tyler turned on the water and got it going nice and hot. He stripped Ezra slowly, taking everything off one piece at a time. Ezra smiled, kissing Tyler’s neck as they got undressed. 

The hot water thawed Ezra out and made him feel instantly better. He didn't think he would be able to survive living up here. Tyler held him from behind and kissed his neck. Tyler sighed as Ezra turned around and kissed him on the mouth. Ezra turned Tyler around and began to rub his back, massaging out the deepest, most tense knots that he could find. Ezra bit into Tyler’s shoulder and Tyler let out a groan that was so delicious , that it sent an intense shiver down Ezra's spine. Tyler pressed him up against the shower wall and kissed him even harder. Tyler seemed kind of pissed off, a little salty and not like someone who had just lost a close relative. He just chalked it up to the fact that everyone grieves differently, and why should Tyler be an exception to that rule. He just felt like he had to watch Tyler closely to make sure he didn’t start hitting the bottle again. 

They got out of the shower and Ezra slid into bed after putting on his comfiest pair of pajama pants and a soft, worn down old tee shirt. Just as the two of them were settling into bed, there was a knock at the door. They both padded down the stairs. Tyler looked through the peephole, and much to his surprise, he found his mother standing on the doorstep. Her face was stained with streaked mascara and she looked like she was going to freeze to death if he didn’t open the door soon.

Tyler sighed and opened the door. She came in and looked up at him with the saddest look in her eyes. “There’s something I’ve been needing to tell you...but your uncle made me promise that I wouldn’t tell you until after he was gone. And you can’t breathe a word of this to anyone else. It would kill Sara.” Tyler raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Uncle Ron was your father…” She said

Tyler took a minute to think about this. He knew he shouldn’t simply react right away. If he did he might say something that he would regret. Tyler certainly didn’t condone his mother sleeping with her sister’s husband while her own husband was away trying to make money to support them. Tyler and the man that he thought was his father may not have gotten along particularly well, but he would at least consider this a huge injustice to the man. 

But Tyler always had a feeling, especially after he found out about the affair. Apparently, it had been going on for much longer than the fifteen years that he had originally been told. Apparently, it had been going on for close to thirty years, right under everyone’s noses. 

“I kind of had a feeling.” Tyler said “I don’t want to talk about it.” He did want to talk about it. He wanted to yell and scream from the rooftops how mad he was about this entire thing. He didn’t want a single person to forget that he was pissed off. The dishonesty of it was what got to him. He assumed that his mother was trying to protect him at least in part, but he knew most of the lying was done to cover her own ass. 

Ezra stood in the background, but he eventually backed off and let Tyler talk to his mom while he went back into the bedroom. He closed the door and got back in bed, though he could still hear the two arguing. 

Merry fucking Christmas, he thought. Tyler came back later and crawled into bed. 

“I don’t want to be bothered by this but it sucks ass when you feel like you know someone, especially someone you’re related to, and it turns out everything you knew about them was wrong.” Ezra held Tyler close against him and rubbed his back as he took shaky breaths. Ezra sighed and waited while Tyler fell asleep slowly.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had a cool title for this chapter but it would have been SUCH a spoiler. So I held off.

New Years Eve rolled around. Casey sat at the front desk of the shop. His fingers idly playing with a string of healing beads. The phone rang. He hoped that it was the call that he had been hoping for for months now. Around this time last year, people had filmed for the travel channel. The episode on a show of weird tourist attractions in the US blew up, becoming one of the most watched episodes of all time.

Casey picked up the phone. It was exactly the call he had been waiting for. He was going to be on TV. On his own show. He was absolutely floored. He wanted to tell Ezra, but he knew he couldn’t because of contracts and things like that. But he hadn’t really heard from Ezra since Ezra had gone to Canada to be with Tyler, who was apparently all healed and mature now. Casey had started out  mature, why did he still need to go after Tyler?  Casey was so jealous sometimes that it absolutely kicked him in the nuts.

Meanwhile, in Canada, on New Year's Eve, Tyler’s family and Ezra gathered at a big church for Uncle Ron’s funeral. Tyler dressed in a dark suit.  They had both had to get new clothes for this event. Ezra didn’t want to be there. The whole thing felt like he was seeing something that he shouldn’t. His mom was doing a very good job of not crying, while she maintained a level of decorum, comforting her sister at every possible moment while Tyler and Ezra sat nearby. The church was full of people that Tyler had never even seen before. Old work friends, a couple of neighbors from old neighborhoods, childhood friends. Tyler wanted to flee. But he kept himself glued to his seat while the service was performed. 

Sara got up and spat out the mo st soppy, sad, disgusting eulogy that a grieving widow could concoct. And to Tyler , it all sounded so very fake. He sighed and looked over the crowd. Everyone went up one by one to view the body. Ron looked good. But it probably had something to do with the peach colored lights shining down on him and the embalming fluid that they had pumped him up with to make him look like years of drinking and eating like shit hadn’t taken their toll on him. He was bald, with a wrinkled forehead. He sort of looked like Mr.Clean. Now that Tyler looked even more closely at him, he could see some similarities. They did have a similar nose. Uncle Ron had a bunch of faded, old tattoos that looked like he had gotten them in the back of a van in a dark alleyway. Tyler took a good, long look at him and walked past the casket, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his suit pants. 

Ezra wasn’t too bothered by the body. To him it was the shell of someone that he had only met handful of times in his life, and that he had never particularly liked. He did find it odd to look upon this man’s body after the big revelation that had been made a few nights before by Liza merely a few hours after Ron had departed this life. Tyler didn't want to talk about it. And Ezra understood. He respected Tyler’s privacy enough to not ask any further questions about it, and he would continue to do so until Tyler was ready to talk about the whole thing with him. 

They went to Tyler’s mom’s house, where a ton of food was waiting. Hearty food, heavy potatoes and macaroni and cheese. The best part about the funeral was going to eat a ton of food after.  They didn’t stay long. Just long enough to get nice and full before going back home. Tyler hugged his mom goodbye, since Tyler was leaving with Ezra on the third to go back to Florida.  They went home and the two of them began to clean the house.

Tyler had arranged for someone to lease the house while he was gone. It was someone who he had let the house to before, and he knew he could trust them not to fuck anything up. Tyler was going to be gone for the better part of six months, what with staying with Ezra and going on tour over the summer. They scrubbed and scoured, they took their christmas tree and the lights down. 

Finally, it was time for Tyler and Ezra to both start packing. They did a few loads of laundry. Ezra stopped to call Casey. 

“Hey.” Casey said, picking up the phone. 

“Hey...um I’m coming back in a few days.” Ezra said “I should be back on wednesday…” 

“Is Tyler coming back with you?” Casey asked. 

“Yeah…” He was assuming that Casey had heard somehow. 

“Cool...We can all hang out if you want.” Casey shrugged. He figured it was only a matter of time before Ezra and Tyler completely imploded. He should stick around and not lose touch with Ezra so he could be there at the ready when their relationship fell to complete shit when Tyler fucked up again. 

Casey didn’t like the jealous feeling that Tyler gave him. He felt like it messed with his energies when he started to get jealous. He also was starting to think that he should really just let Ezra go. Ezra had only been in touch with him a few times over the last month. But there was also the fact that calling Casey from Canada may have put a bit of a strain on Ezra’s phone bill. Casey could understand that. But he hadn’t gotten too much more than a few facebook messages. 

Tyler and Ezra finished packing and settled in for the night. They would start the long drive in Tyler’s car tomorrow. Ezra assumed that a road trip down the coast back to St.Augustine would put their relationship to some sort of test. 

They slept well that night, Ezra tucked comfortably up under Tyler’s arm. Though Tyler moved away from him during the night once his arm went numb. He hated to move Ezra, though. Ezra was so sweet and cute when he was fast asleep, Tyler simply couldn't resist him.

When they woke up, they loaded their suitcases up into the car and started the long drive after getting coffee. Tyler would get them to the Canadian border then they would drive in shifts. They had decided to drive because Tyler would be staying with him for several months, and Tyler didn’t want to be without a car incase he ever needed it. Rental cars made Tyler nervous, and his own car was perfectly fine. It wasn’t like Canadians drove on the opposite side of the road or anything.

Their road trip would be about twenty-four hours of driving total with a handful of breaks along the way and one hotel stay with a very early breakfast and a long haul back to Florida. 

The first few hours of the trip were a blast. They hit the border and crossed into New York. Their music was loud, they were having a fantastic time. They were going to take their time on their way back and stop at whatever silly roadside attraction they could come across for pictures and a few laughs. Tyler held Ezra’s hand as they drove, stopping for lunch at a Denny’s. 

“I’m already tired. “ He sighed, still sitting in the booth with his sunglasses on. Tyler liked to pretend he was cool and wear his sunglasses inside. It made him feel like a rockstar in some sort of small, stupid way. 

 

\-----------------------

Tyler and Ezra had been home for less than a week when Casey called. His voice was apprehensive and he seemed to sound like something was wrong. In reality, something was wrong and Casey was totally in over his head. He was basically calling for reinforcements on what he would generally consider to be the scariest case that he had ever witnessed. 

““I um….I have a case for us.” Casey said over the phone. He didn't know how to tell Ezra what he had just been informed of. It all sounded like something from a movie. One of the bad horror movies that usually came out in droves around halloween. 

“Yeah?” Ezra asked, his tone was concerned, but he was ready to help Casey out if he needed to. He couldn’t imagine what could possibly be happening. 

“Yeah...It’s a bad one. It’s local, so you can go home after and recharge. But it’s pretty bad. Can I come over later?

“Sure.” Ezra wondered what could be so bad that Casey had to come over and explain it to him in person. What could possibly be worse than the destructive force in Mrs. Jacobs’s home last fall? Nothing, as far as Ezra was willing to think about. Not a goddamn thing. That was it, the worst of the worst. There couldn't possibly be anything else worth exorcising from a home. But there was. 

Casey arrived later with a thick file under his arm. 

“What’s that?” Ezra asked. He had just finished brewing a pot of coffee. Tyler was playing video games in the livingroom. Casey and Ezra went into the kitchen, where Ezra poured them both coffee. Tyler acknowledged him with a nod and went back to playing games. His ears muffled by a pair of headphones. For that, Casey was glad. He wasn’t entirely fond of Tyler, at least Tyler hadn’t started to grow on him just yet. And he hated the fact that Tyler had been chosen over him while Ezra was away in Canada. But Ezra was a valuable asset to Casey and Tyler or not, Ezra had a real gift and Casey was going to help him hone it. 

Casey opened the file and pulled out some glossy photos of the interior of a home. 

“This house is just outside of downtown.” He said, spreading the pictures out on the table. 

“Everything was fine until the homeowners started to renovate. Then things got crazy.” 

“Crazy how?” Ezra asked 

“Well, this was there when they pulled up the carpet.” He slid a picture of a concrete floor painted with symbols in a circle. 

“Is that?” Ezra asked 

“Yep, that’s something someone would use to summon a demon.” 

Ezra was absolutely certain that his heart had just stopped and his stomach had fallen out through his asshole. 

“A demon?” He repeated.

“Yep, a demon.” Casey slid him more pictures. “The homeowners report this reddish black stuff coming from the walls. They’ve had it tested, they’ve had the home inspected. Nobody can figure out what it is. And they’ve also had regular run of the mill haunting stuff too, but that’s absolutely nothing compared to what else has been happening.” 

Ezra didn’t want any part of this, but he felt like he had a real obligation to help in such a situation. 

“This is Tanner. The six year old son of the homeowners.” The child looked gaunt and sickly. 

“They have reason to believe that Tanner is possessed.” 

“On what grounds?” Ezra asked, he was shaking now. He felt like he was living in a real-life horror movie. Even saying “Oh what grounds” Felt like a scripted line. 

“Well, he’s speaking fluent Latin and some other language that a local experts say is a demonic tongue found in some manuscript.” Casey furrowed his brow. This place absolutely reeks of sulfur. I could smell it outside. So that was the rotting egg smell that Ezra had smelled when he came in. It was a smell that he frequently smelled in town, because that was what the water that came out of sprinklers smelled like. Ezra had assumed that the sulfur smell was an sprinkler system in the family’s yard. But yeah, it was a bit unusual for that smell to carry over into the house. 

“Who’s a local expert in this shit?” Ezra was astonished.

“Some professor at Flagler who does Demonology as a hobby.” Casey shrugged. 

“So what are we supposed to do?” Ezra was almost positive that he would not be capable of performing an exorcism of any kind. 

“So what else do you have to prove that this is a demon?” Ezra wasn’t convinced still. He was, honestly too scared to be convinced of anything. 

“The walls. There’s been this liquid leaking out of the walls. They’ve had three exterminators come, and a couple of bee keepers too, since sometimes bees will nest in walls. But none of them has found anything. Mysterious wounds keep coming up on the boy. But every possibility of family violence has been ruled out. There have been multiple psychiatric and medical evaluations and a host of paranormal events in the home. We’ve ruled out all the other possibilities and this is what’s left.” Casey felt kind of weird saying it all out loud. He had never seen a demonic possession before and his grandfather had seen only two. They felt like they were in very unfamiliar territory and going way over their heads. Casey was afraid he might end up ruining some poor kid’s life if he didn’t do it right. Casey looked to Ezra, who looked just as confused and frightened as he did. But he knew they were both nowhere near as frightened as the poor little kid who was trapped inside his own body with a demon that was slowly festering away at his body and soul. 

“We’re going to get the demon out of the house. We’re going to trap it and force it out.” Casey sounded like he knew what he was doing. But that still didn’t make him feel too reassured. Anyone could sound like they knew what they were doing but it took a whole lot more for them to actually know. 

“What about Tanner? Do they have to call the Vatican or something?” In every movie about demonic possession that Ezra had ever seen, there had been some aerial shot of Vatican City which immediately cut to the office of some cardinal who was about to ask the Pope for permission to give permission to some bishop, who would give permission to some priest to perform an exorcism on some kid or some person who had spent years rotting away in a mental hospital. 

“The Vatican won’t do any good.” Casey said, exasperated “The Vatican takes forever to get this kind of thing approved. Tanner has gone through all the medical and psychological evaluations necessary to ensure that there isn’t something else going on. But even then, The Vatican usually says no. The Vatican doesn’t want anything to do with this sort of thing. They want to get as far away from the reality that these things exist in our world. But….And this is between the two of us….My grandparents know a renegade priest and he’s agreed to help us. Father Alejandro wants to meet with us tonight to discuss the plans. Then I want you to come back here and recharge. Put up your wards, as my grandmother would say. We’re about to tackle something big.” Ezra could feel uncertainty in Casey’s voice. And Ezra felt a deep uncertainty in his heart. 

“What’s this about demons?” Another voice said. 

Tyler came into the kitchen and got himself a cup of coffee. This was the first time that Casey had seen Tyler in person since the first time they had met. Of course, Casey had done his fair share of internet stalking. He had flipped through Tyler’s instagram photos and listened to some of his music. But Tyler looked better in person. Or maybe he just looked better now that he wasn’t perpetually either drunk or hungover. Tyler stretched and a bit of his back was exposed. 

“Sexy…” Casey thought, but then he immediately stopped himself. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking of Tyler as attractive. He was supposed to be mad he was supposed to be annoyed that Tyler had snatched Ezra right out from underneath his nose. Just as Ezra had been starting to gravitate more towards him. Tyler turned around and leaned his back against the counter. 

“Ezra’s helping me on a case.” Casey said, looking Tyler square in the face. 

“Is that so? “ Tyler ruffled Ezra’s hair. 

“You two have fun. Babe?” Tyler asked, sounding as sugar coated as possible.

“Hm?” Ezra replied 

“Do you have anything you need me to wash? I’m gonna put the sheets on.” He said it in such a way to let Casey know that they had been having A LOT of sex. Casey tried not to roll his eyes. Tyler was so cocky. Casey didn’t understand why Tyler needed to brag about having sex with Ezra. It wasn’t like they hadn’t both slept with him. It wasn’t like Tyler had hit the jackpot or anything. 

“ Can you meet me at the shop at seven?” Casey asked as he packed up all of his photos and paperwork. 

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” Ezra said as he lead casey to the door. 

Ezra went upstairs to bed and took a long nap. He made sure that the room was dark and that he turned on some rain sounds to help him relax. Tyler played video games downstairs while Ezra meditated and eventually let sleep overtake him. He woke up at 5:30 and had a hefty dinner with Tyler before getting dressed and going to Casey’s family’s business. He walked there, taking in the cool night air and allowing it to make him feel even more refreshed than he had been before. Ezra felt clean, he felt full of a good light that he hoped was what he needed to help him get through this exorcism with his heart in one piece. 

At promptly seven, Ezra arrived on St. George Street in front of Matthew’s Paranormal. He walked inside and saw Casey with his grandparents and a man in a black cassock. 

Father Alejandro was a stout man, with a happy countenance, who appeared to be in his late forties. They were introduced and they shook hands. Father Alejandro’s hands were soft like pillows and his eyes were a deep, rich brown that complimented his greying dark hair. The lines in his face were deep, but there was still an air of youth about him. Young at heart was how most would describe it.  But still, he was aging terribly. 

“I need you two at the ready.” Father Alejandro said, his accent made it very obvious that he hailed from about six hours south in Miami. “I need you both prepared to trap the demon once we lure it out. Now you won’t see anything, but you’re definitely gonna feel it. You’ll know it’s there and it might overwhelm you. But stay strong”. Casey had supplies in his bag ready to go. Candles, sage, and a big wooden box. He had salt and paint pens to mark the floor if they had to in order to trap the demon. 

They got in the van and drove to the house. Tanner’s frightened mother opened the door. 

“He’s been quiet for the last hour” she said “But I’m afraid it’s going to start again. It usually starts around eight or nine and goes all night.” She looked so weary, so exhausted. 

“We’re going to fix it tonight, Lily.” Casey said “We’re going to pull whatever it is out of him even if it takes all night. This is my assistant Ezra and Father Alejandro. He will be attending to Tanner while Ezra and I wait to capture the entity and remove it from the household.”  
“What will you do with it after?” Lily asked.

“Father Alejandro is going to take it with him back to Miami, where he knows people who are trained to make sure things like this never cross back into our world.” Casey sounded like a radioactive bug exterminator. Meanwhile Ezra was trying with all his might to fortify himself against what was to come. He was so afraid, deep down. And he had no idea how to squash that fear. What he did not know, however, was that every little ounce of fear that escaped from him fed the entity that was slowly chipping away at the boy in the next room. 

Father Alejandro went in first. He sat down next to Tanner’s bed. The boy was lying among rumpled sheets in a cold sweat. His sandy blond hair stuck to his forehead and his eyes were locked in a thousand yard stare at the ceiling. He lay spread eagle, arms and legs out to the side. His breath came out in ragged gasps, and a puff of cold vapor left his mouth with each breath. The room was freezing cold, and Ezra was thankful that he had sleeves on. Father Alejandro prayed the rosary and called on the angels and Christ to help him rid the evil that was festering in the boy. These were not the deities that Casey personally would have appealed to, but Father was in his element, and he knew what he was doing. So who was Casey to say he was wrong. 

Father Alejandro kept his eyes closed and began the Lord’s Prayer

_ “Our Father, who art in Heaven, _

_ Hallowed be thy name….”  _

Ezra’s eyes went wide. The boy began to slowly lift up off of the bed. Ezra didn’t believe what he was seeing until Tanner was a couple of inches off of the ground. 

_ “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, _

_ On Earth as it is in Heaven.” _

Tanner plopped back down on the bed. His hands curled into fists. The demon was toying with them. He wanted to see a reaction and he certainly got it from Ezra. Ezra couldn’t control his fear. He had no business being here. 

_ “And Give us this day our Daily bread,  _

_ And forgive us our tresspasses,  _

_ As we forgive those who trespass against us.” _

Tanner let out a laugh that was quiet, but much too deep for a boy his age. 

_ “ And lead us not into temptation,   _

_ But deliver us from Evil.” _

Tanner’s eyes were open now. And they were black. Ezra lit a bundle of sage and began smudging the corners of the room while Casey prepared the vessel for the entity. The box held a few small tokens of protection and it was engraved both inside and out with sigils that would keep whatever the hell this was trapped firmly in the box. The only thing left to do was find out the creature’s name. Though they doubted they would get a clear answer. Finding out exactly what they were dealing with would fix the problem almost instantly. Though they knew they wouldn’t. Casey kept the box open and placed it near the foot of the bed. 

“Ezra…”Casey said 

“Yeah?” 

“The fireplace in the living room is dirty.” There was implication in his voice. It instantly clicked that the fireplace in the living room was where most of the symbols had been and was probably where the gateway was. Ezra needed to go to the living room and get to work on closing that portal before the demon that was already here could have a chance to call for reinforcements. Though Ezra wasn't entirely sure if it was capable of doing such a thing. . He took the smoking sage bundle out to the living room where there was still a summoning symbol painted on the floor. 

“I can’t get it to come off of the floor…” Lily said, her voice was totally helpless and she seemed so much at her wit’s end. 

Ezra smoked the fireplace and pushed every bit of good energy he could spare into closing the portal. He put salt along the edge and went back into the bedroom. Father Alejandro was now praying in Latin over Tanner. The boy was growing more and more agitated. Thrashing around on the bed, screaming at the top of his lungs, he even began to float again. Casey stood close by to catch Tanner if the demon decided to float him to the ceiling then drop him down on the floor instead of on the bed. 

The demon was speaking through Tanner in a language that Ezra couldn’t understand and he wasn’t sure that anyone else could either. 

“YOU!” The demon said, in a voice that was absolutely reminiscent of Captain Howdy from The Exorcist “Look at you witchy boy!!! And your little butt buddy too!!!” The demon laughed and spat more garbage out there were words that Ezra didn’t understand, but he guessed they were slurs in some other language.  “You think you two can take me out of here? You can put me in a box?” Ezra wanted to run, but he knew if he ran that thing would chase him. Casey looked at him with a look that said “You need to stand your ground or we’re fucked. Ignore him, keep working.” The priest began his exorcism rites, praying heavily over the boy and sprinkling holy water, which created red welts on Tanner’s skin. The sight of the child in obvious agony made Ezra’s stomach turn, but he had to remember that Tanner was occupying that shell, but only in the deepest recesses of his own brain. The demon had taken over, and what he was seeing was the demon using a kid as a puppet. 

Casey laid a large ring of salt around the bed and created a devil’s trap within it. The box close by to encase the demon. 

They kept working, on and on until the walls of the house began to shake. Casey reassured Ezra that this meant that the demon’s grip was starting to loosen, but it was getting angry. Casey was regretting not sending Ezra home when it became obvious that Ezra was afraid, but he needed the manpower too much to pass up having him around.

Finally, The demon let go. Tanner fell to the bed from about three feet above it and began to sob. 

But that was not the end. 

Infact, it was only the beginning. 

The box did not contain the demon. 

But Ezra did. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Possession of Ezra Young

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, School kind of took over! But I'm done forever now and I'll be trying to wrap this up over summer! I have more chapters to upload today but I'm a little short on time so I managed this one.

Casey took Ezra home. They didn't leave the house until noon. That had been a fourteen hour job. Father Alejandro went back to his hotel room and placed the box that he was certain contained the horrid entity in his suitcase, in iron chains with a cross on every side of the box. He slept peacefully, feeling as though his work there was done. 

“Holy shit, are you OK?” Tyler asked as Ezra came inside, Casey followed behind to make sure Ezra actually went to bed. Tyler wrapped his arms around Ezra and gave Casey a look that told him to leave. Ezra nodded and buried his head in Tyler’s chest. The demon inside him was resting, it was feeding, and it was preparing its next move.  Ezra slept all the rest of that day and into the night. When he woke up the next morning, Tyler was waiting for him at the kitchen table. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He asked. He had to believe Ezra, no matter what came out of the man’s mouth. 

Ezra began to cry. 

Tyler rushed over and tried to comfort him, but he was inconsolable. Tears spilled out of his eyes and soaked the shoulder of Tyler's shirt. 

“Baby, please what’s wrong?” he pleaded. 

Ezra finally spilled the beans. He told Tyler everything. The kid, the demon, the way that the demon began to pick at him to make him afraid. 

“Shhh….” Tyler said softly, stroking Ezra’s hair. “It’s over now. You’re safe.”

But Ezra did not feel safe. He did not feel safe in the slightest. 

The next few days were a strange blur. Sometimes he felt like he was watching his life through someone else’s eyes. He felt weepy and tired. He hoped that it wasn’t another big bout of depression, though he had no reason to be depressed. Ezra reminded himself that he didn't need a reason to feel bad, and that sometimes it had to be chalked up to his brain chemistry. But still, he felt so vulnerable. Fragile, even. He found himself clinging to Tyler  at every possible moment. 

Tyler began to notice that Ezra was acting strange about two weeks after the exorcism. At first, he just assumed that Ezra was just a little shaken up, that he had seen something horrible in that house, supernatural or not, and just needed time to settle back down. But Ezra never quite calmed down, even though it had been over a month. Ezra had also been getting a little irritable these days. Tyler was starting to grow concerned. He did his best to comfort Ezra and to support him. But it was starting to wear down on him. 

Then, things began to get crazy. 

It began with little acts of pain. Doing things Ezra wouldn’t normally do. Taking a shot of hot sauce once and laughing it off, when Tyler knew Ezra didn’t eat anything spicy after he threw up hot wings once. Then he started to notice the scratch marks on his skin and the way that Ezra was starting to get kind of violent in bed. Tyler’s back was scabbing up from the scratches. Ezra rode him hard and rough and bit him until he bled. Tyler had to stop. Tyler didn’t even try to get Ezra into bed anymore, and to be honest, he was a little bit afraid. He was starting to see cuts on Ezra’s skin. But they didn’t look like just slashes, they looked like symbols of some sort. And the house stunk. There was a strong, rotting egg smell that would emanate from an unknown source. 

Tyler hated to admit it, but when a vase flew off the table and shattered, Tyler knew that they needed some kind of help. The only place he could think of to get that kind of help was from Casey. Tyler called the number on the business card that had been attached to Ezra’s fridge since halloween. 

“Hello? Matthews Paranormal. Casey speaking.” A voice on the other end said. 

“Casey?” Tyler said, his voice shaking a little. “Casey, it’s Tyler.” 

Casey felt his heart drop. Fuck something must be wrong. 

“Is it Ezra?” Casey asked. 

“How did you know?” Tyler always felt a pretty intense suspicion of Casey, but now he hoped he didn’t have to have that suspicion confirmed. 

“I just took a guess. Why else would you be calling me?” Casey leaned against the wall and held the old corded phone to his ear. He was getting pretty nervous, he assumed something was pretty wrong if it was enough to make Tyler call him. 

“He’s been...off...in a pretty serious way.” Tyler felt crazy trying to explain it. 

“What do you mean?” Casey asked. 

“What I mean is he’s growling and shit’s flying off the walls and i swear to God I saw his eyes turn black. “

Casey immediately knew and his heart sank. He knew he should have sent Ezra home that day at the little boy’s house. He knew Ezra was vulnerable that day. Ezra didn’t have nearly the skill and the control over his gift to be able to ward something like that of of himself. Casey should have protected him and now something was horribly out of balance. 

Tyler finished explaining everything that had been going on. 

“I’m coming over.” Casey said. He got his grandpa and went out to the van, where he received an extensive tongue lashing. 

Grandpa’s cell phone rang while they drove to Ezra's house. 

“By God, it’s Father Alejandro.” He said as he picked up. 

“Hello?” he said into the receiver

“Mr. Matthews?” Father Alejandro sounded like he was speaking from the bottom of a well. 

“This is he. How can I help you, father?” 

“The box containing the evil spirit. I sent the box to my sources, and they told me that the box was empty.” Father sounded panicked. 

“Funny you should mention it.” Grandpa said “We think we have an idea of where the spirit might have gone. How soon can you be up here?”

“I’ll be on the next flight, Mr. Matthews.” 

“Good. We’ll do what we can for now.” With that, Grandpa hung up. 

They pulled into Ezra’s driveway. Tyler was outside. He looked terrified. That was probably the first time Casey had ever seen anything resembling genuine emotion on Tyler’s face. Something about Tyler seemed like such a fraud to Casey. He felt like he couldn’t trust Tyler, and that Ezra had made an enormous mistake in choosing him. Casey got out of the car and Tyler lead them into the house. The place reeked of Sulfur and Casey just knew that the box was empty because the demon had slid its way into Ezra. 

“Yep. Casey go get the sage.” Grandpa said. 

Casey went out into the van and got the sage. He smudged the entryway with the burning bundle and went inside. He began to cleanse the house and get in every nook and cranny. He didn’t want to see Ezra possessed. He didn’t want to help with this at all. He wanted to pace the hallway outside the bedroom with Tyler while Grandpa and Father Alejandro fixed the problem. But this was his mess and he felt entirely responsible for it. It was a careless mistake.

Tyler was giving him a look that placed a mountain of blame on his shoulders as Casey walked into the room where Ezra lay on the bed staring blankly at the ceiling. His eyes black like he had sclera lenses in. 

He felt rotten. Casey smudged the room and opened the windows, hoping that if they could just get the spirit out it would leave through the window. But he doubted it was going to be that easy. 

“Father just called. He’s getting on a flight in about two hours.”  Two hours was a long time when there was a demon inside theman you loved, a demon who would stop at nothing to suck every last bit of goodness out of him just for the sake of doing so. If that demon was allowed to continue what it was doing to Ezra, Ezra might end up a shell of his former self. Everything that he loved would be destroyed by the entity. 

“I’m fucking freaking out…” Tyler said as casey handed him a smudge. 

“Don’t freak out, ok?” Casey said “You’re just gonna make it worse.” 

“You don’t understand...he’s everything to me.” Tyler sounded absolutely pitiful. 

“I get it you love him.” Casey sighed 

“Jealous, much?” Tyler asked, suddenly feeling a little bit defensive. 

“No?” Casey was definitely on the defensive now. He wanted to clock Tyler for even implying such a shitty thing. 

“Look, he chose me. I’m gonna be the one he’s gonna want most after you squeeze this demon out of him. I’ll be the one he’s looking for. “ He just wanted to make Casey feel bad, at this point. Tyler was just being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole now. 

“I’m literally saving his life. I think that trumps a few years of you two palling around and a few months of good sex.” Casey was kind of pissed off now but he couldn’t let his negative energy get in the way of him doing his job. 

“Was the sex that good with you?” Tyler figured Casey would be average in bed, at best.

“He was certainly screaming.” Casey winked. Not to mention he didn’t want anything to do with you. You were so far from his mind when I was fucking him that it was almost like you didn’t exist anymore. Casey was prepared to be mean if it meant getting the last say in this arguement. 

Tyler hated to admit that he thought this, but Casey was pretty hot . He had always thought so.Maybe Casey was right about what had happened between the two of them while Tyler was busy getting his life together to be the man Ezra needed him to be. Maybe Casey had been that man all along. 

Father Alejandro finally arrived close to nightfall. It was going to be an incredibly long night. 

 


	13. Chapter 13

“You’re gonna need to help with this.” Casey said, pulling Tyler into the bedroom with him. Ezra was laying in the bed, Grandpa and now Grandma Matthews chanting over him. Grandma’s healing hands were working their magic over him. She chanted in such a way that made it sound like she was moving the heavens and the earth with just the soothing, yet powerful sound of her voice. Ezra was suffering greatly, he was strapped down to the bed by his hands and feet, his skin was pale and sweaty. Tyler was sure he couldn’t bear to see him like this for long. His skin was red and mottled, and covered in little cuts that might leave jagged white streaks in his tattoos. Casey joined his grandparents in chanting while Father Alejandro began the exorcism rites. Casey motioned for Tyler to join them. Tyler felt like this was stupid, but he knew he had to believe or else it wouldn’t work. They sat there all night, working in shifts, staying calm even as the walls rattled and Ezra grew violent. 

Tyler almost peed himself when he saw the bed begin to levitate off of the ground, followed by a loud, solid thud when Ezra and the bed were dropped. Ezra was anointed with holy oils once again and  Father Alejandro continued to pray over him. He didn’t want any of this he wanted to leave, to run away, but he couldn’t leave Ezra like this. Not his best friend, not the person he loved. Tyler knew that he had to stay no matter how things got.

Father gave Ezra last rights. 

“What the fuck, he’ isn’t gonna die!” Tyler said. And he knew that Ezra hadn’t and could not consent to such a thing. 

“If he dies with that demon inside him and no last rights we're gonna be in for a hell of a lot more trouble than we are now. “ Father said,  “I did it as a precaution.” Tyler was trying his best not to be upset. He knew that being upset and feeling vulnerable was what got him into this situation in the first place. If he wasn’t careful he could be the next one with a very big demonic problem. Tyler didn’t touch Ezra. He had tried to but his skin was burning hot to the touch. The sheets were wet with sweat and Ezra’s chest was heaving. He wondered if this was what it was like to watch someone die. 

The four of them kept chanting and praying, working every bit of energy they had into getting the demon out of Ezra. Ezra convulsed, he screamed, he shouted the worst things anyone can say, which often came out in a creepy, guttural tone that was obviously the voice of the demon breaking through to make itself known. Ezra threw up at one point. Tyler and Casey were both struggling, but they had to keep going. They had to do th is for Ezra. This was one thing that you had to do to be there for a friend. If you couldn’t be there for someone when they needed an exorcism then when would you be there for them?? 

Eventually, the house seemed to be shaking at its very foundations. There was a loud, horrific scream from Ezra and then suddenly it was quiet. Casey could feel the demon leave. Father Alejandro closed the box that was supposed to contain the entity the first go around and locked it shut with a key that had a cross at the end of it. He wrapped the box in iron chains and put it in a suitcase that he had wheeled in behind him on his arrival. That, he hoped, would be the end of it. Father knew he had made a grave mistake, and he stuck around for a few more days after the incident to make sure that Ezra was alright and that the demon went on to the proper channels. 

Ezra lay on the bed, breathing like he had just run ten miles without stopping. Sweat drenched the bed sheets and Ezra was red all over. Grandma Matthews took a good look at him to make sure that they were out of the woods She looked over him, checked his eyes and his reflexes. She determined that he would need a few days of solid recovery and that Casey and Tyler were now officially in charge of making that happen. 

Father Alejandro and Casey’s grandparents left after Casey and Tyler both agreed that they would take care of him, at least for the next twenty-four hours. 

Tyler and Casey undid the straps around Ezra’s limbs. 

Ezra had been crying non stop since the demon left his body. 

“Go draw him a bath , ok?” Casey asked. 

Tyler nodded and went to the bathroom to start running hot water. Somehow he felt like he really shouldn’t be arguing with Casey right now. It seemed like it was a moment for them to start working together and put their differences aside for the sake of the man that they both loved. 

Casey got Ezra a water bottle and got him to drink a little. When Tyler came back they determined that Ezra was too weak to walk to the bathroom. The demon had knocked the absolute hell out of him and he was in no shape to do much of anything. They carried him to the bathroom, undressed him and set him down carefully in the tub. Casey went back to the bedroom and began to change the sheets. He put the dirty, sweaty sheets that felt more like wet towels in the washer and turned it on before coming upstairs with new ones from the linen closet and putting them on the bed. He tidied up the room a bit, putting dirty clothes in a hamper and straightening up things on the dresser. He took empty cups downstairs to the sink. 

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Tyler sat on the edge of the bathtub and smoothed out Ezra’s hair. He handed Ezra another water bottle and let him drink, taking small, slow sips as he stared seemingly into the distance.  They didn’t need to talk. Everything that they needed to say could wait. He could tell that Eza was exhausted. A true calm had come over the house. The nightmare was over now and they felt like they had nothing left to fear. They had seen the worst and nothing could scare them now. Outside, dawn was beginning to break. Casey closed the blackout curtains on Ezra’s bedroom window and put fresh sheets on the bed. Ezra hadn’t been eating and drinking much lately, but Casey and Tyler knew that they needed to just let him sleep before they could do anything else. They helped Ezra get to bed and left him in the cool dark room. “We’ll be downstairs.” Casey said as he softly shut the door. 

Casey and Tyler got Ezra back into bed and into clean pajamas. Ezra lay on the bed, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling until he fell asleep. Ezra didn’t know what to make of this. He had felt his entire being slowly get swallowed by the creature that decided to inhabit him against his will. All Ezra could feel was a deep fatigue. He was tired down to his very core. 

Casey and Tyler went downstairs. Tyler turned on the coffee pot. The two of them stayed in the house for the rest of the day, together but still apart. Tyler parking himself in front of the TV, Casey staying at the kitchen table, on his laptop. Ezra came down around dinner time. Tyler had gone to get sandwiches. They figured Ezra’s stomach might not be up to snuff, and a sandwich with some soup might just be what he needed to start feeling a little less weak. 

Ezra found casey standing in the kitchen, washing coffee mugs. He came up and hugged Casey, nuzzling his shoulder. 

Casey hugged him back, burying his nose in Ezra’s soft, dark hair. 

“How are you feeling?” He asked, rubbing firm circles in Ezra’s lower back.

“better...I felt like I hadn’t slept in years.” He sighed, the heat and dampness of the sigh hit Casey’s chest through his shirt. He squeezed ezra gently. 

“Tyler went to go get food.” Casey kissed the top of Ezra’s head. He felt like that might be out of line, but he really didn’t care at that moment.

“Ok...Listen…” Ezra said “There’s been something I’ve wanted to tell you both for a long time. And now seems like it’s as good of a time as any.” Ezra pulled back away from Casey. Casey suddenly felt an intense spurt of anxiety. 

Ezra took a deep breath and sighed. 

“I want you both.” He said softly. “I want both of you. As boyfriends. And of course….sexually.” Ezra was turning pink. Which wasn’t like him. But then again, Casey didn’t think that a request like this was very much like Ezra either.  Casey sort of realized that he didn’t know Ezra as well as he originally thought he did. In fact, they barely knew each other. Casey was worried that he had been using Ezra all this time. He latched on to Ezra because he had a gift that would benefit himself and his business . The business that he was so adamant about not caring about until it became obvious that it was going to get really big once the Travel Channel showed up. Casey had always been worried about paying the bills with the ghost hunting business that he was sure would be left to him when his grandparents passed. But business was getting better thanks to the episode of Weird US. And all of the other things that had been recently contributing to more tourism. 

But that was all besides the point. He felt like he had taken advantage of Ezra without really taking more time to get to know him before just assuming that they were meant to be together on those principals alone. 

“You want both of us?” Casey asked “You want to date both of us at the same time? And possibly have threesomes?” 

Ezra nodded. “I know you and Tyler don’t get along...so I wasn’t gonna try to push the threesome part of it.” 

“Tyler’s hot.” Casey said. “You’re both hot. And I know you two really do love each other. “ Casey kissed Ezra’s forehead. “I’m gonna do my best to get along with Tyler. As long as he promises to do the same for me. If we all want this we could really make it work.” 

“Good.” Ezra kissed Casey softly. Casey tilted Ezra’s chin and went in for another kiss. 

Tyler came back with food. They ate in front of the TV as the sun set through the window. Later, they played mario kart and Casey left Tyler and Ezra in his dust. 

“I’m gonna go home.” Casey said. “I’m gonna go home and I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you.” 

Casey went home. This left Ezra and Tyler on the sofa together. Ezra snuggled up in Tyler’s arms and Tyler wrapped a blanket around them. 

Ezra determined that now was as good of a time as any to tell Tyler what he wanted. 

“So I was thinking…” he said softly, resting his head on Tyler’s shoulder. 

“Hm?” Tyler said 

“I was thinking that I want both you and Casey?” he said, trying not to sound like he was trying to spit the words out as fast as humanly possible. 

Tyler was quiet for a moment. He sort of saw this one coming. 

“You want both of us?” He asked, his brows raised. 

“Yeah… “ Ezra was hoping Tyler wouldn’t be upset or try to make him feel ashamed.

“Okay.” Tyler shrugged.

“You’re OK with this?” he asked, looking into TYler’s eyes for some form of reassurance. 

“Listen, I’ve seen that Casey really cares about you. You should have seen him when he was...you know…” Tyler was talking about the exorcism but he didn’t really want to bring it up in front of Ezra. 

"Alright. I'm fine with it." Tyler said "Let's do it."


	14. Chapter 14

Ezra had left to go pick up dinner from a local barbecue place. This left Casey and Tyler all alone. Tyler wasn’t entirely sure where he stood with Casey. He couldn’t tell if Casey was competition or something else entirely. The incident with Ezra’s possession was something that the three of them would share forever. Ezra seemed to be moving on perfectly fine, though. 

“Has he told you what he wants yet?” Casey asked. 

“He wants both of us.” Tyler replied “He told me the other day...But I sort of always knew”

“Yep…” Casey needed a drink, but he didn’t want to drink around Tyler. 

“I don’t know how I feel about it. I mean, I don’t know what’s stopping me. I like him. I like you .We’ve been through a lot...You and I...and I feel totally different about you than I did when we first met. Not to mention the fact that you’ve grown up a lot.  I wouldn’t mind being in bed with both of you. You want the middle of the dick sandwich?” Casey laughed at his own crudeness. 

“Nah I’m more of a bread slice.. Ezra will be the buns for this sausage fest.” They both burst into giggles. 

“Well, if he wants us both to like each other so much...Maybe we could try it out before he gets back.” Casey shrugged. 

“What do you mean?” Tyler asked. He wasn’t sure if that would be alright with Ezra. Would it be cheating? Even if Ezra wanted them both to have a threesome with him? Wouldn’t it just be getting acquainted with the third person? Tyler found ways to justify it in his mind. He knew Ezra wasn’t the jealous type, and walking in on the two of them in the midst of a steamy makeout might be just what they needed to get the threesome ball rolling. 

“I dunno. Wanna make out or something?” Casey wasn’t sure he meant it, but it would be worth a try. And if he didn’t like it, then maybe they could both stick to just pleasing Ezra. Tyler shrugged. He didn’t see why not. Casey shrugged too. “Wanna start off slow?” Tyler asked “Sounds good.” Casey was trying to control a flush that was creeping up on his cheeks. He placed his arms around Tyler's waist and felt Tyler’s arms wrap around him as well. He leaned in and kissed Casey, he was nervous, shy even. It felt sort of like kissing a stranger, but also not quite. They had both survived a traumatic event together and something about that made the kissing feel a little less weird than it would have a couple of months ago. Casey’s lips were dry, but also full and soft. . But not too sweet. He felt sturdy in Tyler's arms. He felt much different than Ezra, but still that solid male form felt familiar pressed up against him. Tyler, briefly remembered how soft girls were, and he realized it had been nearly three years since he had even so much as held a girl’s hand.  They stood in the middle of the kitchen, continuing to kiss while outside, Ezra pulled up in the driveway. He shut his car off and got the bags of takeout from his passenger’s seat. 

He unlocked the door and went inside. Casey and Tyler weren’t in the living room kitchen where he had left them. He looked in the kitchen, bags in his hands. He set the bags on the counter and turned around. 

Ezra couldn’t believe what he saw. What had just been out of his visual range a few moments before came into perfect focus. He couldn’t believe his eyes.  Oh shit. Tyler and Casey were actually standing in the kitchen making out. Full blown, with tongue, barely noticing him enter the room. 

“Wow…” Ezra leaned up against the counter. 

Casey and Tyler immediately stopped. Though Ezra wished they had taken their time while pulling away from each other. Their hips even pulled apart, which was disappointing because Ezra barely had a moment to notice that the two of them were grinding on each other in a way that Ezra had only seen in his dirty dreams. 

“Glad to see you two are getting along.” Ezra was sure that what he had just seen was possibly one of the hottest things on Earth. Tyler’s cheeks were a little bit flushed, and Casey looked utterly brazen and shameless. 

“Could you two….Could you two maybe do that again. But leave room for me?” Ezra had just forgotten about how hungry he was and how he had been the one that was super excited to eat just a few minutes ago. Tyler pulled Ezra against him so that he was situated comfortably against Casey and Tyler. Tyler kissed Casey again and Ezra joined in. He kissed both of their necks, alternating between kissing and biting. He got into the kiss, Casey and Tyler both laughed a little. Ezra let out a pleased hum. He let out a loud gasp when he felt a hand slipping into each of the back pockets of his jeans. Without breaking the kiss, Casey and Tyler high fived with their free hands. 

“We should take this up to bed.” Ezra said, pulling away for just a second. The barbeque on the counter was completely forgotten about. Ezra went up to bed and flopped down on the mattress. This was absolutely a dream come true. Casey and Tyler flopped on either side of him and suddenly he was overwhelmed by the two of them. He was sandwiched between Casey and Tyler, his neck was being attacked with kisses. They sat up, he faced Tyler and kissed his mouth, firm and hot. Ezra felt like he was at their mercy, and he loved every second of it. Casey and Tyler had him stripped down to nothing almost immediately. Ezra did his best to get their clothes off where he can. Once everyone’s clothes were off, everything slowed down. 

Tyler kissed slowly down Ezra’s body, then back up. Ezra took a hard cock in each hand and stroked them both slowly, not giving too much attention to the heads at first. Casey and Tyler groaned, Tyler buried his head in Ezra’s shoulder. Tyler was usually so rough around the edges, he always did his best to never be too soft around anyone.He had an image to uphold Casey was sort of the same. The two of them, melting into puddles in front of him gave Ezra the most intense satisfaction. But at the same time, the other thing that was really doing it for them was the fact that he felt like he was a toy for Casey and Tyler to share. Or perhaps he was a dessert? A dessert eaten before dinner. Ezra kissed Casey, kissing Tyler was a completely different experience. Casey’s lips were different, the way he pressed Ezra for more was different from how Tyler just went with the flow of the kiss. Ezra could easily kiss both of them all night and be just as satisfied as he would have been with hours of sex. 

While Ezra kissed Casey Tyler snuck down and spread Ezra’s legs. 

He didn’t notice too much, until he felt something wrap around his ankle. 

“Are you tying me up?” He asked, pulling away from Casey. 

“That’s the plan.” Tyler winked at him. 

Ezra let out a groan. 

“Is that ok with you?” Tyler gently rubbed Ezra’s leg while Casey bit a nipple, causing Ezra to cry out. 

“Yes that’s...That’s perfectly OK!” He was literally living out his wet dream right now and he was pretty sure there was no way in hell he would be able to not immediately bust  before they even got started. Both of his legs were tied to the bed. Casey was blowing him now, he felt TYler creep back up the bed and gently slide a finger in his mouth. Ezra sucked on the finger in the dirtiest way he could manage and let out a soft little moan when the finger was pulled away from him. Ezra;s mouth stayed open and Tyler slid his cock into it, Ezra wasn’t sure he could handle this, because Casey sucking on his cock was clouding his mind too much for him to focus on sucking Tyler. But he tried anyway, sloppily blowing Tyler, while letting little whimpers and moans escape when Casey licked or sucked him just right. 

Casey popped off of Ezra and sat up, Tyler passed him a bottle of lube. Tyler pulled out of Ezra’s mouth and reached into the bedside table. He knew what Ezra had been keeping there for quite sometime, since he had once walked in on Ezra using it.  It had been embarrassing at the time, but Tyler couldn’t get the image out of his head to this day.

He pulled out a small, vibrator. Ezra saw it and Tyler watched his eyes blown wide. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the vibrator or the finger that Casey had just slid into him with little to no warning. Ezra’s cheeks were so red and both Tyler and Casey were extremely proud of themselves so far. Tyler kissed Ezra, laying down next to him and giving him the sweetest kisses while he handed the vibrator off to Casey. Ezra’s hand wrapped around Tyler’s cock, which was still wet from Ezra’s mouth. “Oh...oh fuck….” He heard Casey turn the vibrator on to see if the batteries still worked, then he ran it up the cleft of Ezra’s ass, then to the underside of his cock. Ezra was already a shaky mess. He was looking up at Tyler with big eyes, his lower lip quivered a little bit. 

“You OK?” Tyler asked, moving a piece of hair away from his face. Ezra had gone into a completely different place in his mind, he was absolutely submissive to the two men in his bed, they could do just about anything with him and he would be perfectly alright with it. 

Ezra nodded,  

Tyler kissed his forehead “If you need to stop just say so. Everything stops if you say so.” 

Ezra’s nails dug into Tyler’s shoulder as the vibrator went inside him, pressing right against his prostate. He did his best to hold back, but he couldn’t 

“Get it out get it out I’m gonna explode!” He pleaded, but it was too late. Just as Casey was pulling the vibrator out, Ezra came in thick, messy spurts all over his chest, a little got on Tyler’s arm, which he licked off. The hand that was stroking Tyler’s cock got tight as Ezra came, bringing about his own end.  Casey, who had been stroking himself for most of the time, came all over Ezra’s thighs. 

They both could see that Ezra was shaking. Tyler undid the ankle restraints and Casey got a few warm wash cloths while Tyler laid back in bed with Ezra, who was breathing hard and felt absolutely weak. Casey and Tyler cleaned up the mess and settled into bed with Ezra, who tucked himself comfortably between them and closed his eyes. 

They rested for almost an hour, Casey spooned Ezra’ while Ezra rested his head on Tyler’s chest, listening as his heartbeat gradually slowed. Tyler kept one arm on top of Ezra’s arm that was around him and he rested his cheek on the top of Ezra’s head. Ezra woke up first. 

“Round two ?” He asked, a laugh in his voice. 

“Absolutely.” Tyler said. Casey smirked and pulled Ezra tight against him, kissing his shoulder. Tyler grabbed a good handful of Ezra’s ass, and his hand brushed up against Casey’s cock, which Ezra could feel growing hard against his ass. 

“Can I watch you two make out again?” Ezra asked, still half asleep. “It was really hot.” Tyler laughed. Ezra was probably the most adorable person that he knew. Or at least he could be. Casey climbed over Ezra and got on top of Tyler. Ezra sat up and watched. 

“Oh god…”Ezra watched as Tyler and Casey kissed. Tyler even had his legs wrapped around Casey. But there was a good deal more than kissing going on. Ezra couldn’t take his eyes away from their hips. They were grinding, slow and hot, their cocks rubbing together in a way that was obviously getting them both exceptionally hot and bothered. 

“C’mere.” Casey sat up and pulled Ezra into the fun. 

They played around a little longer, Ezra wondered whos cock he was going to take first and which one of them would finish him off. They were both thick, he was going to be stretched open nice and wide. He rolled on to his stomach and began eagerly sucking Casey off.. 

Ezra had gotten a little distracted, lost in sucking Casey’s cock. Ezra hadn’t had any real interest in guys until he met Tyler, and he never thought sucking a dick was something he would actually do, let alone be actively enjoying. But he had to look up when he heard Casey and Tyler playing rock, paper, scissors. 

Tyler won. Ezra was completely indifferent to the outcome of this game, and he wasn’t entirely sure why they were playing. But then it hit him. They were playing over who got to slink their cock into him first. Tyler got the lube and pressed a finger inside Ezra while Ezra kept his mouth firmly around Casey’s cock. 

He let Tyler finger him, he had gotten used to the feeling of having something inside of him, be it a finger, or something with a little more girth….or a lot more. He heard Tyler tearing open a condom packet and rolling the condom down over his shaft.  Ezra pulled off of Casey’s cock when he felt the head of Tyler’s cock pressing against him. He usually bit the pillow, but instead, he bit Casey’s thigh. Casey yelped and his yelp was followed by a laugh. There was a deep, red bite mark in the soft meat of Casey’s thigh. 

“You naughty little shit! You bit me!” He mussed up Ezra’s hair as he slid his cock back into Ezra’s warm, waiting mouth. “Holy fuck…”Casey groaned, struggling not to fuck Ezra’s mouth. Tyler’s cock felt amazing inside him, and he was pushing back with every thrust. Tyler fucked Ezra hard pulled out and let Casey have a turn. Casey felt a bit different, but just as satisfying. Tyler kissed Ezra slow and sweet, then he kissed Ezra’s cheeks, which were burning red. His forehead was a little sweaty, but then again they were all a little sweaty. Casey came, pulled out and let Tyler back in to finish them off. Tyle rolled Ezra on his back r went back to fucking his perfect ass, pushing into his sweet spot with every thrust, making Ezra get louder and louder. Casey kissed him to keep him quiet, but it didn't help. Ezra came, then Tyler too. 

Ezra was left alone in the bed as condoms were peeled off and thrown away. The mess was cleaned up and they all curled back up in bed together for another rest. Ezra was exhausted, his ass was sore and he was pretty sure he couldn't take any more if he wanted to, and he certainly did want to. This had, without a shadow of a doubt, been the best sex he had ever had. Followed by a tie between one-on-one sex with either Casey or Tyler. Both left him absolutely breathless. They kissed each other softly as Ezra slept it off. 

When they woke up, it was almost ten. 

Ezra’s stomach growled. 

“Everything downstairs is cold.” He thought. “Eh, we’ll microwave it.” 

“I’m hungry as fuck.” Tyler announced. 

“Same.”  Ezra sat up. Tyler and Casey got out of bed, Ezra went to his dresser and slipped on clean boxers and flannel pajama pants. He threw on a tee shirt and a hoodie, because it was absolutely cold in there. The other two got dressed in pajamas and they went downstairs to heat up the food that Ezra had brought home hours ago, before their little fuck fest had even begun. 

They heated up their dinner and got comfortable on the sofa, with the TV on and an extra blanket. They ate in mostly silence as they all mulled over what had just happened and where it would eventually take them. Tyler found that he did like Casey quite a lot. He wondered if the three of them being together would mean that he couldn’t just have sex with Ezra. Or even with just Casey. Casey wondered the same thing. Ezra, however, was thinking it would be totally easy to still have alone time with either of them. The whole thing made sense to him in his head. He knew he could easily love two people. He wasn’t sure how he would feel if Casey and Tyler went into the bedroom and locked the door. Ezra worried about feeling left out, but he figured he would be fine if Casey and Tyler had sex without him while he wasn’t home. But if he was in the living room playing xbox? He may feel a little jealous, a little left out. But he didn’t know exactly how things would work out between Casey and Tyler. They seemed to be getting along well, and they obviously had chemistry in bed. 

“We should talk about this.” Ezra blurted out. 


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh here's another chapter thans mostly porn with some other stuff.

“Yeah we should.” Casey turned off the TV. Tyler was half asleep on Ezra’s shoulder, but he immediately got up to make a pot of coffee. 

Casey and Ezra followed him into the kitchen and they all sat down at the table to discuss it.  Ezra figured he should take the lead here, since it was all his idea in the first place. 

“So…” He said softly “What are we all?” 

“I think we should just clear the air and all say what we want.” Tyler said. All those meetings were really paying off. He felt like he was more able to express his feelings and his needs than ever before. “I’ll go first. I want a loving, committed relationship.” Last year, Ezra would have been floored by the thought of Tyler and a committed relationship. But now, Ezra wasn’t surprised. Tyler had really proven himself recently. He had grown up so much. He was absolutely ready for the kind of love that Ezra had for him.

“I want the same thing.” Ezra said “I’m ready for something like that. I’m ready for something that's going to last a long time, I want stability, I want commitment and loyalty. 

Casey looked a little bit dismayed.

“I want to keep sleeping with both of you. I travel a lot, and so do you. I want to maintain a friendship and a closeness that includes sex. Maybe someday, when I’m not the one traveling around for work all the time, I’ll be able to handle the kind of commitment that  you two are looking for.” Casey had more things under wraps, but he certainly couldn’t say anything at that very moment. He was under a strict contract not to breathe a word of what was about to happen until given the go-ahead. But he knew he might just end up blabbing anyway just because he knew he could at the very least trust Ezra to keep everything on the down low. 

“I understand that..” Ezra said, mulling it over in his head. He was certainly into Casey  but that feeling was something new that he still needed to grow and care for. “I think...I think the three of us can make this work. If we all really want to. Tyler and I travel a lot...But we travel together usually.” The summer tours would be fast approaching. Tyler was staying down here until then. 

“So were sort of a threesome.” Ezra shrugged 

“I think this is gonna be the best way for it to work out. We’re all busy. You two obviously have wanted to be together for a long time. I’ll be your sexy third wheel.” Casey laughed. He wasn’t uncomfortable. And he knew he wasn’t going to be seeing anyone aside from the two of them. Tyler and Ezra were more than enough to keep him satisfied.

“And there’s something else I need to tell you guys. But I’m technically not supposed to tell you this but I have to tell somebody and I guess it’s relevant to our situation in a way.”

Ezra and Tyler looked somewhat suspicious but asked Casey to continue. 

“So remember how when you two were up in Canada, that film crew came to do an episode for a show on the Travel Channel?”   
Casey and Ezra nodded.

“Well the episode was a hit...the network wants to give me and my family their own paranormal investigation show...We start filming soon. And we’re going to be filming cases across the country...maybe even internationally if things take off.”   
“Holy fucking shit!” Ezra almost jumped out of his chair. They were both thrilled for Casey and his new venture. “Now you know we’re gonna be watching every episode, right?” Ezra was beaming. Though to be honest, Ezra had had enough of the paranormal to last him a lifetime. But he still liked watching Casey do his work. He liked seeing how responsive the spirits were to Casey and how he could get them to turn on little blinking lights on his K2 meter. Ezra got up and hugged Casey. “We’ll all be famous now” He laughed. 

“I’m sure you two can have a guest spot.” Casey said with a wink. 

“You bet your ass we will. “Tyler was smiling now too. 

“But we need to get back to the polyamory ground rules before we get too off topic.” 

“I’m gonna just see you two. I'm not gonna sleep with anyone else.” Casey said “And I expect the same from the both of you. Nobody goes outside the circle, at least for now.” 

“So what about one on one time?” Ezra asked “What if two out of three of us are in the mood?”

“Well the most obvious solution to that would be to take advantage of the spare bedroom. If one person isn’t up for it, or if we’re just up for a twosome then they can use the spare bedroom.” Tyler shrugged 

“I think that’s probably the best idea. And if one person gets sick they can be quarantined off to the spare room.”

“So wait, are we living together now?” Casey asked 

“Me and Tyler are, technically, until Tyler has to go home. But we imagine you’ll be spending plenty of nights here.” Ezra winked. Casey could have easily bent him over again just for that remark. 

Tyler and Ezra both nodded. The terms seemed simple enough. It didn’t feel like there was much to negotiate. Ezra kissed them both. 

“Then it’s settled.” Tyler said with a happy smile. 

“Can we go back to bed? I’m exhausted.” Ezra sleepily stood up and the other two followed him back to the bed, the bed who’s sheets would have to be changed first thing tomorrow morning, after they had all had a hot shower. Ezra crawled into the middle of the bed Tyler held him securely from behind and Casey snuggled up at his side. He could definitely get used to this. Two guys who seemed to completely adore him sounded like his definition of actual heaven. But it wasn’t the attention, it wasn’t the sex that he craved. Ezra was so loaded up with love that he needed to spread. He was very afraid that if he was supposed to focus all of that kind of love on just Tyler, that he might smother Tyler and eventually drive him away. Having Casey made it easier. He could love both of them equally and not smother either of them. Of course his individual bonds with both of them were completely different things. He loved them for different reasons. And both relationships were different. But when they all came together it was ridiculously good. 

Ezra slept like a baby, even though Tyler snored just a little and Casey moved quite a bit in his sleep. They all were comfy cozy in the king size bed 

__________________________________________

Ezra was going to be gone all day with his band. They were starting to write for their new album that was set to drop next summer. Casey was left by himself, with the shop closed on Sundays. “It’s wrong to make people work Sunday. Sunday is for resting. Nobody rests anymore!” his Grandpa had loudly complained many years ago as he made the decision to be closed on sunday “Everyone deserves at least one guaranteed day off a week!”. 

Casey had decided to text Tyler. A part of him wanted more alone time with Tyler. He felt like the two of them had a good deal of bonding left to do before they could both feel really solidified in this relationship.

[Text: Tyler] What are you doing today??   
Tyler was surprised to get a text from Casey. In fact, he kind of felt like they just got along to please Ezra. He felt the same way though, that the two of them needed to spend more time together if this relationship deal was going to work. 

[Text: Casey] Nothing much. Ezra’s gonna be gone all day so I’m stuck by myself. 

[Text: Tyler] We should hang out. Maybe grab lunch or something?

Casey had an ulterior motive, if he was being honest. He wanted to have sex with Tyler. Just Tyler, to see what it would be like. Little did he know that Tyler had a very similar curiosity. 

[Text: Casey] Sure. Meet me downtown at the seawall?

[Text: Tyler] I’ll start walking. 

[Text: Casey] Cool. 

Tyler put on his shoes and went out the door, careful to lock it behind him with the key that Ezra had made for him a while back. The seawall typically ment the area of seawall that was next to the Castillo de San Marcos, the huge Spanish fort that made up one of the most popular tourist attractions in town. Ezra had told him about sneaking onto the grounds of the national monument at night to fool around with girls when he was younger. And how his first kiss had been on the ledge of the seawall, but it had been interrupted by one of the daily cannon firings. He knew that fort was special to Ezra, and it sort of held a special significance to him now too. He walked to the seawall and sat down to wait for Casey. The water was calm, and he could see the occasional dolphin in the distance. Dolphins were still a pretty novel thing to him, especially ones that were out in the wild and not in an aquarium. Tyler found them endlessly fascinating, along with the manatee he once saw. He wondered, briefly if they could have a group date to the Alligator farm that was across the bridge. 

The Alligator farm was a fun place. It was not where alligators were bred and farmed, but instead a zoo that mostly housed reptiles with a smattering of exotic birds. Tyler never got tired of seeing animals. 

Casey arrived and they started walking again, towards Scarlett O’Hara’s, a popular restaurant in town. Casey had worked there for a while, bussing tables to make some extra cash before he was old enough to really start doing investigations on his own. 

The two sat down in a booth and ordered water. 

“Are you still going to AA?” Casey asked. 

“Yep. I found a local group and started going about a week after we got back here.” 

Tyler’s sobriety was a big concern for Casey. Tyler getting back into drinking could cause major problems within their sweet little circle that they had just gotten started. 

“Good. I’m glad. Ezra loves you like crazy. It’s kind of wild how much he loves you.” Casey half-smiled. “I feel like you and I may never get to that kind of love...but I’d like to at least sort of try, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. You and I got off to a rough start. One of your first impressions of me was when I was just about to hit rock bottom.  And I’m sorry we had to get off to that kind of start. I feel like I’m a completely different person now.” Tyler felt like he was apologizing, but he was also pretty sure he didn’t need to apologize for anything at that particular moment. He smiled and reached across the table for Casey’s hand. 

“I don’t know what kind of person you were before, but I know what kind of person you are now, and that’s what’s important. I feel like you’re genuinely cleaning up your act. You know what you want, and you have someone you love enough to get your shit together for. Not that you should ever do something like get sober for someone else. It’s gotta be something you do for yourself. But you made a commitment and you’ve stuck to it. I like a man that can commit to something.” 

They ordered their food. Casey wanted a glass of Sangria, but he decided he’d better not while Tyler was there. 

“So what kinds of plans do you have for the future?” Casey liked to plan, especially now that they had something to plan about. 

“What do you mean?” Tyler asked 

“You have to go back to Canada at some point, right?” Casey wanted to know what Tyler planned to do in order to stay here with them. The only thing he had come up with was Tyler marrying Ezra. 

“I have dual citizenship. I’ve had it for a while. Ezra kind of keeps forgetting I have it so he’s always asking me about when my visa expires.” Tyler laughed. “I just definitely like Canada better. I like the cold. I dunno if I could live down here, I’m pretty sure I’d cook alive if I had to stay here over summer.” Tyler usually fled when it started getting hot and humid in Florida. He would retreat back to Canada where there were significantly less bugs and you couldn’t typically fry an egg on a car. 

“So do you wanna come back to the house with me?” Tyler asked. 

“Yeah...I’d like that.” Casey bit his lower lip. 

They settled their bill and left Scarlett’s, stopping outside to send Ezra a picture of the two of them through snapchat. Ezra responded later with a picture that had a filter of him with an exaggerated frown. He said he was jealous and couldn’t wait to come home that night. 

Tyler and Casey got back to the house.

“I wanna be frank with you, ok?” Casey said.

“Hm?” Tyler raised his eyebrows. 

“I want us to have sex.” Casey, for some reason, felt like he had to be incredibly frank with Tyler. That seemed to be the nature of their relationship. Being as forward as possible was the best way for the two of them to communicate. There was no frills, no nonsense, just the two of them being completely honest with each other. It was very different from the way that the two of them seemed to speak softer and sweeter to Ezra. 

“I want us to have sex too. We could have sex right now.” Tyler suggested. 

“We could...But clean up first.” Tyler knew what he meant. By “Clean up” He meant do what Ezra spent a considerable amount of time doing before letting either one of them to fuck him. Or really do anything that involved his ass. Tyler was up for bottoming for casey, but he wanted to have it both ways. Maybe now wasn’t the time to ask about it. 

“Alright…” Tyler disappeared into the bathroom and got himself cleaned up. Casey went to the bedroom and toed off his shoes before laying down in the bed. Tyler came out a while later, showered, wrapped in a towel and presumably ready to be fucked. Tyler felt strange, he felt very vulnerable at that very moment. He dropped the towel and got into bed with Casey. He pulled Casey’s shirt up over his head and tossed it to the ground. They cozied up, Tyler getting under the blankets to stave off the coldness from the air conditioning and his wet skin. Casey finished undressing and slid under the blanket with Tyler. Casey got on top and kissed Tyler in a way that was a little more chill than he would have kissed Ezra. When he kissed Ezra, Casey was trying his best to be dominant, because Ezra ate that kind of shit right up. But kissing Tyler felt like he was really on a level playing field. Tyler felt the same way, but he also wrapped his legs around Casey’s waist and ground their hips together nice and slow. Tyler wanted to ride him, but he also wanted to be bent over. He then realized that he was getting way too far ahead of himself. 

Tyler’s hands felt all over Casey, his chest, his neck, his fingers ran through a mess of soft ginger hair. Casey finally took a good long look at Tyler beneath him. It was still daylight and light was streaming in through the second floor window. Tyler’s eyes were pretty. They were a warm shade of brown, and his mouth was a brooding teen movie pout that had girls all over the country screaming his name as they waited for him to make an appearance. Tyler loved every minute of that attention, and Casey knew it. But at that moment, a thousand adoring fans couldn’t have made Tyler feel as utterly flustered as he did now. The kissing alone was enough to make his heart pound. Tyler kissed Casey again and again, eventually spreading to his neck and shoulders. Casey slipped him tongue a few times and Tyler was absolutely ready and willing to accept it. He could taste Casey and it was pretty great. Casey went down to Tyler’s nipples and began to suck at them. His teeth grazed the hardened skin and the sensation went straight to Tyler’s cock, which was rapidly reaching it’s full size and hardness with every little sensation.

“Sixty-nine?” Casey asked with a smirk. 

“Oh hell yeah.” Tyler couldn’t help but laugh at the term. It was so silly to him. He turned around so that he could suck Casey’s cock and Casey could suck his. Casey’s mouth was warm and wet, and Tyler’s cock was the perfect size for Casey’s mouth. Tyler wasn’t sure how he was supposed to stay focused on blowing Casey while Casey blowed him, but it was certainly worth a shot. Actually, Tyler found it easier than he had originally expected. The sensation of Casey sucking him made him want to be dirty, and what was the easiest way to get dirty at that very moment? Suck a fat cock, obviously. Tyler held it still with his hand as he worked at the tip. He could hear casey moaning and feel the vibrations of every moan around the shaft of his cock. 

“Hmm ok.” Casey said, pulling his mouth away. 

Tyler poppped his mouth off and sat up slowly. 

“What now?” He asked. 

“All the prep work, of course.” Casey reached into the nightstand for the bottle of lube that was rapidly running out. 

“We’ll start out on your back.” Casey said, putting lube on his finger.

Tyler laid back and spread his legs. He felt just as exposed as he did when he bottomed for Ezra, if not more so now that it was Casey who was seeing everything. Casey licked him from his perineum to the tip of his cock, which made Tyler shudder. He had seen Casey eat Ezra out before. They had taken turns doing it. Ezra had completely blissed out during that. 

“Hey will you um….” He felt so awkward asking for it. 

“What?” Casey asked 

“Will you eat me out?” Tyler said it so fast that there was no way casey could have heard and comprehended what he had said. 

“Will I what?” Casey asked. 

“Eat me out….” Tyler turned a bright, hot shade of red. 

“Yeah, of course.” Casey had to laugh a little. He wasn’t laughing at Tyler’s request to have his ass eaten, but mostly he was laughing at Tyler’s complete shyness about it. Tyler didn’t seem like the type to be shy about anything, let alone a sex act he had seen done plenty of times before and had been on the giving end of. 

Casey got between Tyler’s legs. Tyler’s hand immediately went to stroke his cock to keep it hard. He didn’t want to lose his boner because he was nervous. He wasn’t sure how it would feel, but judging by Ezra's reaction it was damn good. But something about being exposed and vulnerable like this, especially with Casey, simply added to his nervousness. 

Casey wrapped his arms around the backs of Tyler’s thighs and began to lick him slowly, going gently over the hole with a flat tongue. Tyler gasped. He did his best to hold still. Casey was helping by holding his legs down to the mattress so Tyler couldn’t seek any sort of relief from the sensation. It felt incredible. Casey kept licking him, slow and steady, then picking up the pace. 

“Fuck!” He moaned

“We will in just a minute.” Casey ate him out a little more and then stopped. 

“Into it?” He asked. 

“Holy fucking shit yes, I am totally one hundred percent into it.” 

Casey coated a finger in lube again and slid it slowly into Tyler.

“You ever bottom before?” he asked, sliding the finger slowly all the way in and stopping. 

“Yeah, i bottomed for Ezra once...it was really good. Have you bottomed?” 

“Nope. I might just have to start though. Apparently all the butt stuff is pretty good, judging by the way you two seem to react.” Casey crooked his finger and it grazed Tyler’s prostate. 

“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.” Tyler smiled and rocked his hips against Casey’s finger. 

“I fucking love it. I’d be a full time bottom if I didn’t love Ezra’s tight ass so much.” Tyler laughed as he grazed a gentle hand down Casey’s arm. 

“It’s a perfect ass.” Casey agreed, pressing the right spot once again. Tyler’s back arched and he moaned a little softer this time. Tyler sighed and pulled Casey down to kiss him again. Casey pulled his finger out and grabbed a condom after pulling away from Tyler’s kiss. Casey rolled the condom on and coated it in more lube than it already had. Tyler rolled over onto his stomach and lifted his hips up off of the mattress. Casey slowly pressed his cock into Tyler, who groaned as the uncomfortable feeling of being filled for the first time in a while. He took a moment, burying his head in the pillow, to get adjusted to the feeling. 

“Good?” Casey asked, struggling to hold his hips still. 

“Yeah…” Tyler shifted his hips to make the fullness a little easier to handle. Tyler rocked his hips and Casey began thrusting.

Meanwhile, Ezra came home and found the house mostly empty. He looked for Tyler around the kitchen and living room. But he was surprised to find the door to the spare room closed most of the way, but cracked just enough to where he could see in, He heard moaning. Either Tyler was having a particularly good time by himself, or something else was going on. He peered in just as he was hearing another voice that sounded familiar. “Oh my fucking God.” He thought. Tyler was on all fours and Casey was behind him, fucking him fast and rough. 

This was, quite possibly the hottest thing he had ever seen better than the makeout he had witnessed the night before. He knew anyone else would be painfully jealous and might even storm in to stop the act from happening. But Ezra couldn’t tear his eyes away. He loved watching Tyler get fucked, he couldn’t help it and he couldn’t figure out why, but watching Tyler get it from behind, or on his back with his legs spread open was absolutely on his list of the sexiest things he had ever seen in his life. Maybe it was because Tyler put on that big tough guy front when he was performing or that he tried his best to look like Mr.Badass, and seeing him all spread out, completely at Casey’s mercy did something to Ezra that he couldn’t even understand. 

Tyler was so loud too, when he bottomed. Usually Tyler was pretty quiet when he topped, save for the low, sexy growls that were often purred into his ear while Tyler rutted him into the mattress. . 

Casey let Tyler come first, and after that intense orgasm, Tyler crumpled. But Casey held him up and quickly finished inside of him. Ezra watched Casey pull out. Tyler laid down to catch his breath before they had to clean up. Watching the two of them kiss after it was over was wild too. It seemed like they had just hated each other until recently. Ezra felt a little bad watching them without their knowledge. But it made him feel a little more like their situation was going to work out in the end for all of them. 

Ezra went back to his room and snuggled into bed with Netflix , waiting for the two of them to come back.  He was worried it would seem like he was getting jealous or overbearing if he didn’t let the two of them have a little privacy. 

Tyler and Casey cleaned up and got dressed again.

“I thought I heard Ezra come in.” Casey said, pulling Tyler close to him. 

“Good, maybe he can help with round two.” He kissed Casey’s jaw.

“Fuck that was hot…”Casey sighed, going for Tyler’s neck again. 

Casey went and looked into Ezra’s room. 

“Yeah he’s home.” he said. Tyler followed him. Ezra shut off his tablet and made room for them in bed. “Hey. He said as Tyler climbed in on one side and Casey on the other. 

“How'd it go today?” Casey asked, wrapping his arm around Ezra’s middle. 

“Good.” he said as Tyler snuggled up close to Ezra. 

“How was the sex?” Ezra asked. It was hard for him to contain himself. 

“You know?” Tyler asked. 

“I came home and heard moaning behind the bedroom door. That wasn’t supposed to be a secret, right?” 

“Nope.” Tyler said softly. “In fact, we’re extending a formal invitation for you to join us for you to join us for round two.” Casey kissed Ezra and stroked his cheek. Tyler hugged Ezra tightly. 

“Hm and here I thought you two would never get along, let along get along so well.” Ezra smirked 

“I need a nap first. It’s been along day.”  The three of them fell asleep together for a little while before waking up again in about an hour and a half. Ezra wished he could have both of them as soon as they got in bed, but refractory periods sucked and he was dead on his feet from working on music all day. Ezra was the last to wake up. And he woke up because he felt a hand slipping into his boxers and wrapping around his cock, which had gotten nice and hard while he slept. He opened his eyes and saw that it was Tyler’s hand, and that Tyler’s cock was pressed firmly against his ass.  Mhhmm” He purred, pushing back against Tyler. Casey was gone though. 

“Where’d casey go?” he asked “ We left the condoms in the other room...and the lube.” Ezra rolled over and started to stroke Tyler’s cock. 

Casey came back in and sat on the bed. Tyler peeled back the covers and peeled off Ezra’s boxers. Ezra whimpered as his legs were kissed

“Go clean up.” Tyler said softly. 

Ezra didn’t want to move from that spot. But he had to. 

“Go clean up cause we wanna take turns.” That was immediate motivation. Ezra got up from the bed and went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. 

Tyler and Casey got back in bed and curled up close together. They both stripped naked and got under the blankets. Hands wandered, but they did their best not to get carried away before Ezra came back. 

Ezra came back later, showered and ready. He didn’t even bother wrapping a towel around his waist. He laid down on the bed between Casey and Tyler, who looked incredibly sexy al tousled up from their first round and the nap that they had taken beforehand.  

“So you’re gonna share me?” Ezra laughed, as a hand massaged either thigh, and one wandered up to his cock. 

“You’re gonna be so fucking wrecked after this.” Tyler teased. “Spread your legs.” Ezra did as he was told and a hand wandered down to massage his perineum and his balls while Casey’s hand stroked his cock in a slow, steady pace. 

“Fuck….” Ezra was already about as hot as he was capable of getting. His cheeks were burning and his eyes were wide, even though they had just gotten started. Ezra groaned loud and dirty.    


End file.
